Enrollment
by TheSeeker1399
Summary: Kayla's life is a nice one. She has a family, a great high school, a great education. All of which turned into ashes, literally. A fire has started in her home leaving her with nothing in return. With no family or friends to seek too, she flees into the streets defending and surviving on her own. When on a special day, she comes across a man who has forever changed her life.
1. Chapter 1: Introduction

**Why hello again. Just another story before my school year starts. This story is going to be a little different, in perception and characters. You may have noticed that I'm putting in a new character, hopefully this goes well. It's in a first person view narration, through the thoughts and sights of a girl. I'm pretty excited for this story, it's a different style from all the other stories I've written in. If you are confused at anytime during this first chapter, please be patient. All the answers will unfold slowly through each chapter.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

 **~{:Chapter 1- Introduction:}~**

I'm not the best at introduction, so as a typical introduction I'm going to start with a hello.

Hi.

My name is Kayla, I'm a 5ft 6', 17 year old female. I have a hourglass body type, not the skinniest but also not the chubbiest. I have my dad's brown eyes with a little mixture of my moms green. My hair is brown, reaching to the length at the end of my shoulder blades, with a tint of red when the sunlight hits it just right. I'm not much of a girly girl; wearing the normal skinny jeans, sneakers (maybe combat boots if I feel dangerous), and a plain black shirt with occasionally a jacket over top.

Sorry if this entry sucks, I'm currently writing down my thoughts in this journal that I found lying around the base. I'm going to tell you a little bit about myself before I begin on the adventure that has forever changed my life. I was born in the state of Pennsylvania out in the suburbs. Personally I thought it was perfect, places were close but sparse, it was still but active. People were local and well-known, this made connections more convenient. When I was 11 I started taking piano lessons for a skill, quit when I was 13 out of boredom. Since then I've self taught myself learning some songs once and a while. As the world grew, more dangers started lurking in the dark, as a result my dad signed me up for some martial arts classes. Began with a beginner white belt, enhanced, ending with a black belt. After that no one in the family has messed with me. Enough about that though, let me tell you about my family.

As a 14 year old everything seemed pretty normal. Going into high school, acne having a party on your face, getting the gist of braces fun stuff like that. I took studies pretty seriously so I could prepare myself for a brighter future. My parents took education as a life essential, they wanted me to become the independent women I am now. I was raised by my fabulous parents, giving the right amount of discipline but just as much love. I was accompanied by my little sister since I was 4 years old. I remember her being such a spark of energy, showing her crazy creativity through her drawings and art... On the walls. Yeah, my parents weren't too happy with that, but she was just a little toddler what did they expect? We traveled a lot as a family, practically went all over the world experiencing new cultures. I will always remember their smiles, laughs, humor. How could I forget.

I remember that night. I was with my sister in my room just hanging out, she was only 10 years old. She'd grown up so fast, maybe a little too fast. Judging by her personality she acted like she was the queen of the lands. It's like her whole persona had changed from the time she was a toddler to almost a pre-teen. Each year she showed a different personality, it was truly amazing. But this year her personality was confusing as ever. She showed signs of shyness but yet she was as loud as ever, as if her own emotions were contradicting their selves. Guess those are hormones for ya'. Anyhow, it was getting pretty late into night and we had school the next day. My mom came into the bedroom quietly knocking on the door signaling that she was going to come in. Her face peeked from the doorway until she fully made her way in.

I can recall her voice being so gentle and smooth. "Girls it's time for bed, you start your first day of high school tomorrow missy. I suggest you get some rest." Her eyes fell upon mine communicating her eyes with her words. I looked at her seeing the notion to say goodnight. I looked back at my sister, dark brown eyes connecting with mine. I gave her a smile and playfully shoved her off my bed.

"Alright get out of here, night." I say, she rolled her big eyes rounding her goodnights as well. When she walked over to the door I realized how tall she'd gotten. I was only 5 4' at the time and she was 4 12'. Not only did her growth show but her hair as well. It use to be so thin and light, but as time grew so did her hair; getting thicker, longer, and darker. She closed the door behind her as it made that clicking sound indicating it was fully shut. I wrapped myself in the blankets set on my bed drifting to sleep peacefully.

I just wished it would have stayed that way, peacefully I mean. Sometimes I wish that I could have gone back in time to at least say that I loved them. I wasn't prepared for the fire, the deaths, the mistakes. I guess everything happens for a reason. I was pulled away from my sleep when I heard screaming, but it wasn't from a person, it was from an alarm. My eyes burst open from the sudden changes in the atmosphere. I remember being warm going to bed but now I was scorching hot. My eyes stung from the smoke moving into my room. I closed them immediately opening my window next to my bed. I quickly looked back remembering I still had family in there and that I needed to get them out. I ran back over to the door feeling with the back of my hand, it was warm but not deathly hot. At that moment of time I was thankful for taking those martial arts classes, my foot connected with the door throwing it open. The flames quickly engulfed the hallways, the stairs, and were now headed for my room.

I never really thought that life could be so crude or unfair. My family didn't really deserve it, if anyone did it was me. I knew I couldn't have saved them, it was too late, I just wish I was a minute earlier. From that point it was a blur, I remember the flashes of Blue and Red lights at the scene. A man trying to give me a mask for more oxygen.

"Are any of your family members still in there!" A firefighter came up to me yelling.

I took the oxygen mask off and nodded my head frantically. "Yes. My mother, father, and little sister." It was kind of hard to speak when smoke stayed in your lungs. He just nodded and left getting his other men to join him in the rescue, but before he could the house started to fall apart. The roof caved in on itself, wood being chard to grey dust. Other men and women took their long water spouts, aiming at the orange glowing monster consuming my house. It took them a while but they soon managed to put everything out. Only burnt wood and chard metal was left. One of the policeman came up to me as I was sitting down in the ambulance, hypnotized by the smoke emitting from what once was a house. Her hair was pulled back into a bun; black, kind of short. Little fractions of her hair swayed across her face. She wore these glasses that made her green eyes pop. Not to mention her voice, stern but had a hint of sympathy in it.

"Hi my name is Victoria, I work for the police department. Do you have any family or friends that we could contact for you."

I recollect looking at her and saying "No." My parents didn't really talk a lot about their parents, probably because they were all dead, or they were drunks. Same way with friends, I didn't really make any. They all thought I was weird for some reason. Either way, I didn't have any other family/friends but them.

* * *

It was a day after the incident and I stayed at this orphanage overnight. I was eating in their kitchen area when I got called down to the main registration room down on the main floor near the entrance. There were 3 policeman looking at me with these sad facial expressions. I'm not sure what was wrong with me, if it was normal at the time, or if I was just 'different', but I didn't feel anything when they told me my parents died in the fire along with my sister. I couldn't make out any expression on myself, I just stayed neutral.

"How did the fire start." I finally said.

"We thoroughly investigated the debris to find this. "One of the investigators held up a bag with the written words 'Evidence' at the top. Inside contained what looked like a curling iron and a can of hairspray. "Do you think this could have any connection?"

My jaw instantly dropped. Some days my mom would have these meetings for her job during the evenings, she would use her curling iron and hairspray to make sure the curls held in place. Sometimes she would even forget to turn off the iron, but luckily I would be able to catch it just in time and turn it off. This time however, I was too late. "Y-Yes... I think so."

"We believe that the iron was left on during the night beside the can of hairspray, which is highly flammable. This most likely caused the can to heat up and then explode, starting the fire."

Pretty much after that conversation things just went downhill from there. I was put into an orphanage permanently until I was adopted by my new parents, but here's the thing with adoptions. Adults prefer babies and toddlers then some stuck up teenagers, supposedly, like me. I didn't really mind waiting I was patient. Waiting patiently turned into a day or two, then weeks, then months. Not a day goes by that I think of what I could have done to save my parents and little sister. I would have nightmares about it every night, although it has lightened up a bit. There wasn't really much to do around the orphanage besides eat, sleep, and maybe watch some T.V, but they didn't really get lots of stations. I did learn a few things or two while I was in the orphanage; like don't bother the upper class, a group of 16 year older kids and up, when they are outside of their dorms. Trust me, that is a day I will never forget. I would always be bullied or abused by them. I was still 14 at the time all this happened. They would call me by these childish names, poke me, maybe even punch me once in a while. But none of that really hurt me, except when one of them started to call me Killer Kayla.

They blamed me for my parents death, saying that it was all my fault. I should have been more aware of my surroundings, how I was stupid for not noticing. One day it got a little too far and I used my martial arts for protection. I ended up being the one in trouble, the irony of it too. I may have twisted her leg back a little too far, snapping the ligament to her knee, may I just say that I regret nothing. Except for the fact after that day I was badly beaten up. A group of her friends went after me holding me down on the floor, as the others kicked me, punched me, spitting in my face. I can't tell you how weak I felt, how vulnerable I felt to be in that position. Afterwords, they told me not to tell another sole what happened or else the next beating would be much worst. I took their word for it, and since that day I haven't spoke another word to anyone.

* * *

My 15th birthday had past, I had spend that whole day sitting down just lying around my room all alone. The bedroom was nothing near the room I had when I was 14 living with my real parents. My sheets weren't gray, my bedroom didn't look depressing, and the window next to my bed wasn't broken. Before this night I've planned it before but it wasn't stable enough. I didn't have enough money, a backup plan, or a place I was going to sneak off too. Now that I had a year to plan and gather all the essentials I remember telling myself "Today is the day, I'm getting out of here."

I was ready to escape, it was time for me to be free. When night time rolled around I packed up everything, including money, an extra pair of clothes, a weapon (hey you never know going out into a world as dangerous as it is. Plus it took me a while to earn the money to buy this thing. Do you know how hard it is to sneak a concealed pocket knife into an orphanage without anyone knowing, yeah it's not easy.) some food, and water. I dressed up in my black skinny jeans, hoodie, and black converse sneakers with my hair tied in a ponytail. I grabbed the backpack and slid it onto my back, opening the window and crawling out silently and carefully. I placed my feet onto the balcony that you see in city apartments and shuffled down that latter dropping myself onto the slick black concrete ground.

I was on my way to freedom and adventure. I looked back at the place that I escaped from reminiscing in the moment and turned back taking my steps to a new experience. I didn't know how long I was walking, I stuck with the shadows avoiding as much light as possible. I walked down some alleyways, streets, and bridges getting as far away as I could from... Well where I was at the time. I needed to find somewhere to escape, get away from all these problems. Morning was soon arriving as I could tell from the peak of golden yellow coming from behind the trees. At that moment I knew I had to find shelter fast, or at least somewhere to hide until night had arrived again. I knew that the orphanage would soon find out that I was gone and call the cops, and that's exactly that they did. In some town areas I walked by signs would be posted on the walls of stores, or on televisions sets.

Every once in a while I would see them pop up, but then one day they started to disappear. All the signs, alerts had stopped. I had become non-existent to the world now. I figured that maybe the police had finally given up on the search, and that's exactly what happened. Not that I was complaining, I didn't want anyone or need anyone in my life, I was a full independent person now, or so I thought.

Not only did my food start to run out but my water as well. I had spend nearly all my money on food and water, with the remaining left it was practically useless. Things were just too expensive at the time. I made my journey to Philadelphia, PA exhausted and hungry. My legs ached all over along with the splitting headache that was starting to make me nauseous. The shadows of the night began to walk among the living as the day grew darker. The moon was out and the night felt pretty cool. Leaves fell from the trees in browns, yellows, and oranges. I found myself stumbling into an alleyway, it was dark, kind of comforting. I decided to take shelter there thinking I would get some good rest. I huddled myself over to the corner of the alley depriving myself of as much light as possible. The wall supported my back, as the cold damp ground was now my bed. I placed my worn out backpack on the ground, using it as a pillow. I relaxed my body feeling all the emotions gathering up inside.

I remember crying that night. I thought that maybe I finally figured everything out. My body had finally caught up with the events that happened since that one year. I missed my family, my home, I was even beginning to miss my school. The cool wind started to pick up sending chills up my body. I huddled as close to my body as possible keeping as much warmth as I could. I know I'd been in better shape, but walking such a long distance through the rain and cool air can make a mess out of you. I had a dirt stains all over my clothes matching my face, my hair looked like I just woke up in the morning and decided not to brush it, my shoes were getting warn out almost to the point of no return, and don't get me started on the stench.

It had been 6 months when I was out on my own surviving the cool rainy weather of autumn. At that point I had definitely ran out of money, food, and water. I guess you could call me homeless. For the rest of the other 6 months I'd learn to adapt being alone, surviving using a plastic bottle I found off the streets to use as a water canteen. You don't really think about food when it's just there for you. You wouldn't believe the amount of food that people waste, let's just say it was enough for me to survive off of. Living on the streets I learned you need to have a defense. From past experience, it's good to keep a protective weapon on you. Not to mention some martial arts skills for defense, but if things came down to it murder. Personal Hygiene, you need to have a good health to prevent yourself from having infections and dying. I may or may not have stolen a few items here or there to keep myself in good health. Brushing your teeth is a must. Survival of the fittest right? Seriously, I'm kind of a clutz and trying to climb fences to escape intruders coming at you with knives; can leave you with a couple of cuts here and there. Don't forget staying fit, on nights when my life is being threatened I would practice my martial arts. Using trash bags as punching bags, fences and walls as obstacles, and my pocket knife as a last minute resort.

All these rules were key to my survival out in the streets, and on a certain night, those rules changed my life. One night I was walking down a concrete sidewalk scavenging for some food to eat. Everything seemed pretty normal a few cars passing by, people trying to avoid eye contact with you, the usual. I heard a slight scream though, not the excited screams you hear when someone wins the lottery, no. This scream was a panic scream, it sounded male. Then I heard a cry of pain, like when you get impaled by something(if you even know what that sounds like). Being a curious human I wanted to know what it was, but also being smart I cautiously stayed back. I ran over to the side of this brick wall that lead into the alleyway. I peeked my head around the corner seeing two men, one lying on the ground, and the other standing over him with what looked like a butterfly knife. I couldn't make out their faces at the time but it looked like the man standing over the other male, had this Blue suit on. When the other had on this Red suit.

The man in blue was speaking out these words, but they seemed foreign to me. Was he speaking french? Anyhow, he was saying something to the man on the ground before he lifted up his knife swinging it toward his chest. Now I didn't know if it was the adrenaline that got to me, or the fact I thought I had this strange feeling I had a connection with the guy, but I leaped forward. I ran over to the man in Blue and tackled him to the ground, catching him off guard. He fumbled to the floor with me on top of him, I didn't know what got over me, I just started throwing punches. To the chest, upper-stomach and ribs. He made this painful sounds with his throat, reversing the situation. I remember him saying something in his heavy accent.

"You shouldn't have done zhat, mon petite fille." Yeah still have no clue what the dude said at the end.

He threw his fist to my face, but I quickly blocked grabbing his arm. He used the other one to stab, but I tightly grabbed his hand throwing him to the my side. I got up kicking the knife out his hand, which was pretty stupid of me. He grabbed my foot kicking me from my weight sending me to the hard cold ground. He then lifted me up, pinning me harshly against the brick wall. Which was his stupid doing, I lifted up my leg connecting with his crotch. He fell the ground saying some more words in his french, probably swearing out a storm.

At the moment, it was a perfect time to escape. I turned around to see the man in Red still on the ground. In my head I was thinking of how I didn't want to leave him, but I also didn't want to stay a second longer. As a choice, I went over to him supporting him on my weight. As fast as I could we made it to another alleyway that I knew was farther away, not to mention safe. Luckily I've been on the streets enough to know some secret short cuts. No one would ever see us trespass. Besides it was an abandon shelter that someone left to die overtime. It wasn't the perfect place to live, with the green growing inside of it, windows that were probably once new, and the water damaged floor tiles, but hey it was home. I'd made ourselves way into the building, checking the outside to make sure no one followed. I placed the injured man on the side of the wall, while I took out my backpack from underneath this desk, I hide it behind. I unzipped the bag rummaging through to find some medical supplies. I took out the bandages, antiseptic, the bottle of collected water, and a rag.

I gathered the supplies into my hands making my way over to the injured man. He looked so peaceful just lying there sleeping off the pain. I set the supplies beside him taking a look over him to see if he needed any assistance. From what I could tell he was bleeding near his abdomen. A blood stain was more prominent there, I took off his suit jacket, tie, vest, and white shirt that was underneath. I could definitely tell he worked out, his body was pretty pleasing to the eye. What I'm a girl, I have the right to gander. But dang he had a lot of clothes on, how long did it- sorry getting off track. I found his entry wound and grabbed the bottle of water pouring the clear substance over the wound to clean off the mixture of dry and new blood. I took the rag softly dabbing drying off the access liquid. The antiseptic was then smeared over the wound being accompanied by a white bandage tied around it. I grabbed back his clothes only dressing him in his white shirt, I buttoned the shirt half way before placing it over him. I lifted up his left hand slipping down the sleeve repeating it to the other side, pulled down the shirt sliding it down his head. From there on I buttoned it the rest of the way. With what bottle of water I had left I cleaned up his face, clearing the dry blood off his lip and nose. Taking a step back from the Red I observed a little bit more.

I thought maybe the guy was a burglar, with this Red ski mask on and everything, but he was wearing a suit. That's what threw me off guard, what would a man wearing a very expensive suit be doing in an alleyway wearing a ski mask, not to mention having on the color Red. If I were to rob a place I wouldn't wear Red. 'Strange' I thought. Wherever the guy came from, I knew he was bound to bring bad news. But in a way looking at him he looked trustworthy... I know sounds weird, finding a guy off the street wearing a fancy suit but at the same time wearing a ski mask, bleeding almost to death in the middle of a dark alleyway. I probably need to rethink my life choices.

I grabbed my backpack and sat it down near the unconscious man, I laid his head on the fabric material. I took another look and was curious to what I was getting myself into. I bent down next to him feeling up his arms and legs. I put my hands in his pocket feeling for anything. An object was left in his pocket, I took it out finding out it was another one of those butterfly knives. 'What the heck is this, the new must-have criminal weapon?' I thought. I set it to the side reaching in his opposite pocket finding a fancy pocket watch. It was gold, almost looking like a handed down family heirloom, with a design engraved around in a circle. In the middle of the watch was what looked like a hummingbird. It was pretty cool, I shrugged and placed both the weapon and watch by the desk to keep hidden. Just in case, this guy could have been a nutzo for all I knew.

I went back over to the Red and wondered what his identity was. I didn't find any ID or anything on him, just those few things. I recall making my hands over to his neck slipping my fingers gently underneath his mask slightly lifting before he quickly grabbed both of my hands. I slightly jumped at the sudden action 'wow you can wake up to me barely touching your mask but you can't wake up when I'm carrying you up two flights of stairs to fix your injury...' I thought to myself at the time. I looked into his eyes they seemed angered but calm. But there was something else behind that mask that was comforting, wow that didn't sound crazy... In that split second of a jump scare my heart rate came down to its normal range. I stared at the man with soft eyes, and let go of his mask, as he slowly did the same with my arms. He didn't leave eye contact, it was sort of intimidating. I guess it took him a while to figure out where he was, because he looked around the building in a panic way before saying.

"Merde."

* * *

 **To Be Continued...**


	2. Chapter 2: Enrollment

**Previous:**

I went back over to the Red and wondered what his identity was. I didn't find any ID or anything on him, just those few things. I recall making my hands over to his neck slipping my fingers gently underneath his mask slightly lifting before he quickly grabbed both of my hands. I slightly screamed at the sudden action 'wow you can wake up to me barely touching your mask, but you can't wake up when I'm carrying you up two flights of stairs...' I thought to myself at the time. I looked into his eyes they seemed angered but calm. But there was something else behind that mask that was comforting, wow that didn't sound crazy... In that split second of a jump scare my heart rate came down to its normal range. I stared at the man with soft eyes, and let go of his mask, as he slowly did the same with my arms. He didn't leave eye contact, it was sort of intimidating. I guess it took him a while to figure out where he was, because he looked around the building in a panic way before saying.

"Merde."

* * *

 **Continuation:**

 **~{:Chapter 2- The Enrollment:}~**

I remember him trying to get up from his position, but cringed from the sharp pain coming from his abdomen. I quickly ran over to assist him patting his shoulder to stay down. I held up my pointer finger trying to get him to wait a second, before he moved anywhere; I think he got the message, as he watched my every move. I turned around over to my bag grabbing the pill bottle out of it. I twisted the lid off the bottle pouring 2 capsules into my hand. I made my way back over holding out the medicine, staring at him to take the pills. He gave me a distrusted look, but eventually took them from my hands, he bobbed his head up swallowing them both whole. Not gonna lie, I was amazed.

"Merci..." he mummbled softly.

I returned a smile to him; sitting back down facing toward him. It was a little awkward I have to admit. Just sitting there kind of looking around the room avoiding eye contact. Through my peripheral vision I could see him still looking at me, eyes burning through my skull, trying to find an emotion. I narrowed my eyes staring right through his sole, if he had one. Finally, and thankfully, he looked away sighing heavily falling asleep. Everything seemed so normal to him, nothing out of the ordinary. Strange. I didn't know what to do. It seemed too sketchy; I mean honestly he just got stabbed near the abdomen, taken into an abandoned shelter by a stranger, and just slept as if it's normal. It just seemed to unreal. I took one last look at 'em before I went to bed. Walking over to the wall beside him I scrunched myself together closing my eyes shut awaiting the morning.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

I awoke to the smell of something burning. I squinted my eyes open feeling the rush of smoke contaminate them. My breathing hitched, leaving me in a full panic mode. The house was on fire, I remember trying to get up but I couldn't. A force was holding me down preventing me from moving. For some reason I could move my head, eyes and mouth. I felt paralyzed from the neck down, a terrible feeling really. A scream came out from the distance, it sounded like it was coming from my sisters room. My neck snapped to the sound, seeing the fire come closer and closer, my head sweating from the torturous heat. I squirmed trying to control my body to move but going nowhere; I started to get flustered. My breaths got faster, but shorter. I wanted to cry, the flames made it impossible sucking the moisture out of me. I then started to feel a new extreme of pain. My flesh felt like it was boiling, my body feeling it was turning inside out. I opened my mouth screaming, no words coming out in the process. This wasn't right, I felt I was in my own hell.

As lifelike as it felt, I was saved by the cold touch of a stranger. An invisible hand touched my shoulder. The stinging stopped, the flames seemed to die down, I started to wake up. I peeked my eyes open feeling the clean air suppress them. My breathing slowed down inhaling the cool oxygen. I felt something wet fall down my cheek, was I crying? My surroundings caught up with me, as I caught up with reality. I sat up looking at the man in Red, who was now by my side touching my shoulder for comfort. It must have still been dark outside, because seeing his face, uh mask, was difficult. I backed away from him timidly, still processing what had happened. I must of had another nightmare. Once I stopped shaking; I looked up at the masked man. He looked at me calm and collective, still bent down on one knee. He raised both of his eyebrows looking at me. He brought out a cigarette placing it between his lips; both hands went toward the stick, one lighting it and the other blocking any draft. I looked at him in question wondering _How the heck did he get a cigar-Never mind probably shouldn't even bother._ His eyes gazed up on mine, flicking his lighter close sticking it in his pocket. Inhaling the chemicals, the man took a deep breath blowing smoke through his nose. It reminded me of a dragon. He slid his back to the wall, legs crossed over each other on the broken tiled ground.

Still in the same position, sound echoed from his mouth. He was starting a conversation.

"Bad nightmare?"

I nodded confirming his observation.

"Desole, about your parents, it must have been tragic." his eyes seemed tired.

 _Inhaling chemicals._

I paused. Stiffening in fear, I was afraid this would happen. I assumed he must have heard me talking in my sleep. I closed my eyes gently, a teardrop falling down my face.

 _Exhale Smoke._

"Sh... Your family would be proud of you cherie. Et seems you know your way around this place very well, you take care of yourself. I saw what you did back there when I was in... trouble. What was zhat martial arts?"

I listened, then nodded my head again.

"You have fascinating skills, ma cherie."

I gave out a little blush and a smile. I haven't had a proper conversation since the last fight I got into at the orphanage. After that my social skills have gone way WAY down.

"Do you like taking risks?" He changed the subject. His body came closer to me; both sitting across from each other face-to-face.

 _Inhale_

I nodded, hesitantly. After all, I did sneak out of an orphanage, stole some supplies, fought to help him, and risked taking care of a stranger.

"Do you trust me?"

It was a simple question; honestly I didn't know how to answer it. It took me a while to answer, and he was patient. In the beginning, where I saw him lying on the ground hopeless, to the time I cleaned him up. Something about him made me feel safe, comfortable. I felt like I could trust him, but I kept my distance for precautions. After all he would have killed me if he really was a complete psycho right? I finally decided on a decision, to trust him. I dipped my head up and down showing him my reply.

 _Exhale_

He gave out a warming smile before getting up and reaching his hand out. I looked at him in question. "Come, follow me." he spoke. I placed my hand on his leather glove, and he pulled me up. "Now let's find a way out of here, shall we?."

I stared at his stomach area trying to figure out how he was going to do anything with an armature wrapped wound. His eyes followed mine smoking the last of his cigarette. "Oh this.. Trust me cherie when I tell you zhat I have been in worst conditions then zhis." He threw his cigarette bud on the ground diminishing its last light; walking over to the empty space in the room.

I pointed my finger telling him to wait. I went over to the water-warn desk and lifted up the rock beneath it. Out, I grabbed all of his things that I stashed away in case anything were to happen. I gave him back his personal belongings entrusting him with his weapon. "Merci." He replied back in acknowledgment. I saw him place his belongings in his left and right pocket. His butterfly knife sat in his right back pocket of his pants. I grabbed my backpack, for emergencies, and showed him the way out of the abandoned safe haven. Once we made it out into the streets I looked around the area to see if I could estimate what time it was. The little black silhouettes on the cement side-walk barely peeked from underneath the buildings. Little rays of orange and red could be seen just above the horizon line. With an educated guess I would say it's almost six in the morning, but then it hit me... The dude has a watch, duh.

I caught up to the man in red, already 10 paces ahead of me, and tapped on my wrist. He looked down at his watch telling me that it was 5:56 a.m. I nodded acknowledging his reply following him down the cold side-walk. I didn't know where the heck we were going, we reached this gas station out of the small town area, into the country side. The place looked like no human existence had touched it since it was first built. The buildings color seemed like it used to have a solid blue banner with the gas stations name encrusted into it. Now the letters seemed to fade, spots of the paint either chipped or peeled away. Overgrown green moss climbed the side of the building, the glass windows shattered probably because of the weather, the gas tanks empty from the years of being abandon. As we both approached closer to the deserted gas station the man went over the telephone implanted into the brick wall. He told me to wait for few, while he called one of his 'friends'. As he picked up the phone and inserted a 25 cent quarter, that he coincidentally found on the ground, into the slot of the machine; I walked over to the stores door and looked through the reflection. I scrunched up my face in disgust seeing how bad I looked. I noticed how much that I've changed, physically at least. I gained some muscle, but looked like a homeless person (duh I was...). I paced back and forth wondering who he was talking too. I didn't even know the mans name. But then again he doesn't even know mine...

He finished talking on the phone; placing it back on the hook of the dial. I looked down at the ground kicking around the gravel rocks around. I heard the crunching sound of the gravel being squished by a heavy vehicle. A white van appeared to be driving up into the gas station. It rushed over near me, I backed up; heart slightly pounding. I backed up into the figure that said I could trust him. I've seen these situations in movies, they never ended well for the victim; I was that victim. I turned around to meet the man standing behind me giving him a worried expression. He gave me a serious face and then nodded that everything was going to be okay. The white looking van parked to the side of me. The door to the car opened and to my surprise a women came out. She was smaller than the man, about the same height as me, maybe just a smidge taller. Black hair, in a bun. Glasses that made her green eyes pop out. I had this weird déjà vu moment that I've seen this woman before. With her silky black hair, glasses, it was all at the top of my head I just couldn't pin point it.

She stood up straight with confidence, it intimidated me. It felt as if all her emotions drained all my confidence making me feel vulnerable. I closed in closer over to the man backing up until I was stopped by his gentle grasp. He turned me around and lowered himself until he was at eye level with me. His voice flowed into my ears like the harmony of a symphony. He placed his right hand on my right shoulder; like when when a supportive father explains something to his child.

"You have to trust me."

Before I could give him any acknowledgment something felt different. You know when you get a bee sting, or get a paper-cut, something like that. You feel a little pain, wait no, a shot; from the doctor. When I was little I would always be so afraid of them, they always felt like a pinch. Anyways, that's the sensation I felt. Through instinct I looked the opposite direction putting my hand were I felt the pain, the back of my neck. Instantly I tried to fight but my body didn't choose to obey, it was ignoring me. My legs felt numb, it was getting harder and harder to stand. I winced from the tingly impression in my neck. I looked at the man in his eyes, I couldn't give him all the emotions I was feeling. Scared, confused, betrayed? My legs gave way; all I can remember from that is losing my balance and falling into arms of support. Then a room of black silence.

* * *

It was happening again. The room I was in started to burn, along with my flesh. The smell was intolerable, the scent of death. I felt all my nightmares rush into one dark dream. This dream was different then the others, I was walking down a dark alleyway. It seemed to continue seeming like a never ending hallway. I could hear a cry for help in the distance; the sound familiar to the ears. I started to run as fast as my legs could take me. As I neared to the end of the long alleyway I saw two figures. The same two figures from the night I saved that man. The moonlight seemed to shine just right for me to see both of their suits, but dim enough for me to mistaken their identity. One wore an all blue suit and mask, as it's opposite wore red. The victim in red laid struggling on the ground, as for the other, confidently composed on top. He held up his blade above his head, while using his other to hand to keep his prey still. I tried to run faster, my heart beating out of my chest. I needed to help him, he's just like me; a person just searching for a way out of trouble. Just when I thought I was gaining on them my feet started to slow. My actions started to slow, but time still seemed to go at it's own pace. I saw the blade come down at a regular speed impaling the man in the chest. His cries matched my own; blood slowly seeped into his suit making it a much darker crimson red. I could scarily feel his pain, my heart pounded with every throb of his chest. But then it stopped, his throbbing, my heart, my moments. They all stopped.

A bright white light attacked me as I opened my eyes. I felt cool but it also stung at the same time. My pupils must have dilated because the room started to become more visible. All the walls seemed to be plastered with white padding; like ones of a restraint area in an asylum. A white marble table sat in the center of the room with two chairs sitting across from each other. The white mattress I laid on lye in the corner of the room. Six bright fluorescent lights hung from the ceiling. There looked to be as if no door was there, but it was hidden in the walls. The padding started to move, from behind emerged a women, the same one that came out of the driver seat of the white van. She wore a purple dress, the top half being purple with a white collar and strip going down the from end meeting together with buttons. The bottom half stayed pure black; like the bun of her hair.

"Hi, please have a seat." she insisted.

I looked around the room confused of where I was, let alone what was happening. I remember getting up from the mattress with caution crossing my arms around me. I sat down in the cold pure chair scooting a little closer to the classic table. She put a tan filing folder in front of her; I looked down noticing it had my name on it. Looking back to her eyes she began to ask me questions. I remained silent nodding or shrugging to her questions, getting me practically no where. Before that, she introduced her self.

"You can call me Miss Pauling, I know you may be very scared or confused right now, trust me everything will begin to make sense. All you have to do is answer some questions and we can move on to the next step, do you understand?" Her voice sounding so professional and calm.

I nodded, she did the same but smiled.

She grabbed the file opening it up reviewing the contents it provided. "Your name is Kayla, yes?"

I signaled a yes. She grabbed the pen from the file checking off, probably the question she asked. The lady who claimed to be Miss Pauling continued to ask question, I would answer to the best of my ability; yet I said nothing.

"Alright, I have all I need thank you for being... cooperative. Now that I've asked the questions, it's only fair to answer yours. At the moment you are in a, how would you put it, corporation. There are two companies you should be aware about, R.E.D and B.L.U. The two companies have been fighting each other for the greater good, crazy to believe I know. Here we collect people like you to help us, we call those people mercenaries. We give them a great amount of money, weapons, shelter, food, water, etc. Together each of the teams work, as a family."

 _A family?_

"Look I know this is all hard to process; meeting a strange person; going to a strange place, waking up in one. I can't imagine the confusion you're going through. But we have been watching you ever sense the day you escaped from the fire."

 _Wait... Did she say she was watching me? Since the fire? Wait a minute.. She's that police officer!_ My eyes became big, my mouth gaped open in shock. I stood up form the seat causing the chair to slide against the ground in a screech. I remember now. I looked at the ground and then back to her in disbelief. I saw her get up slowly and put a hand to my back. Her words calming me down "Hey.. It's alright, relax." Still in shock I slowly sat down, _she's been watching me for that long?_ _If all this is true, then was that man in the red meant to be there, at that time?_

"It's okay if you are confused, just let a week roll around and you'll understand the situation a little bit more. We seek people like you, whose lives have already went down the drain needing a second chance. Although, that isn't the only thing we are looking for; skills, mental and physical health, situation, status, survival, all the things that need to meet a certain criteria. Lucky for you, you've met everything single one of them. That's how you got here, how we chose you. All we needed to do was get to you, so what I did was contact both of the bases to get on the case. It's there choice on who to pick to get their new recruit, and by the looks of it both of the Spy's were chosen. It's a 'first come, first serve' kind of operation. Fortunately you just happened to come across the two fighting, ironically you were the one to choose one of them."

Miss Pauling took a form out of the folder and placed it in from of me. At the top were these BIG **bolded** letters reading " **CONTRACT** ". From what I could read it was just a form stating that I was agreed to join the team suggested to me, same with a class that was well suited, and some other stuff I zoned out from. She placed the pen beside the contract and folded her hands together.

"Here is a contract stating that you agree to joining the RED team, and will take the tests necessary to determine your specific class."

I looked down at the contract staring at the piece of paper. I took my hands from underneath the table placing them on both sides of the paper. _Was I a 'chosen one'? Do I even know what I'm getting myself into? How does company even exist, I've never heard of this place. Let alone the work that they supposedly do._ _Then a weird voice in my conscious came into my mind, it was male. I heard him saying "Do you like taking risks?" That's practically what I did with my life, ran away, took risks, but was this one any worst from all the one's I've done in my past._ Just before I could continue my thoughts the woman spoke again. She looked up at me with her bright green eyes and took both of my hands into hers.

"It's going to be okay, you can't run away forever. Your parents would want this for you, to start a new beginning and stop being stuck in the past. It's time to meet your new family." Her smile seemed really convincing with the words she spoke.

I guess it's time to begin another chapter in my world of a life. I picked up the slick black pen and started writing my name in cursive. The ink sunk into the paper like oil on cotton. The letters to my name was now their property. Miss Pauling gave out a happy smile as she collected the signed paper.

"Congratulations, welcome Mann Co."

I smiled from both excitement and nervousness.

"Not much of a talker are you?"

I shrugged again, as usual, for a common reply.

"It's okay you don't have to answer." she paused to write on the file whispering to herself ' _traumatized to speak, from past.'_

"Now for the next step, class trials."

* * *

 **To be continued...**

 **Honestly I am so grateful to all the people who have followed or favorite and reviewed. I was actually not expecting this, so thank you so much for reaching higher than my expectations. You guys are all so supportive and amazing! Also if there is any grammatical errors, or pronunciations missing it's because im typing this really late at night and I'm tired. I'm just so eager to give you readers something to read, mostly because I have big plans for this story. Again sorry for some misspellings and mistakes. (cliche moment) I'm only human, please enjoy the story. HAVE AN AMAZING NIGHT, MORNING, AFTERNOON, EVENING, ETC.**


	3. Chapter 3: Running, Rocket, Fires

**Previous:**

"It's going to be okay, you can't run away forever. Your parents would want this for you, to start a new beginning and stop being stuck in the past. It's time to meet your new family." Her smile seemed really convincing with the words she spoke.

I guess it's time to begin another chapter in my world of a life. I picked up the slick black pen and started writing my name in cursive. The ink sunk into the paper like oil on cotton. The letters to my name was now their property. Miss Pauling gave out a happy smile as she collected the signed paper.

"Congratulations, welcome Mann Co."

I smiled from both excitement and nervousness.

"Not much of a talker are you?"

I shrugged again, as usual, for a common reply.

"It's okay you don't have to answer." she paused to write on the file whispering to herself ' _traumatized to speak, from past.'_

"Now for the next step, class trials."

* * *

 **Continuation:**

 **~{:Chapter 3- Running, Rocket, Fires:}~**

She didn't seem very excited to start the process, from what it sounded like, it's the same routine every single time. She gave me a gesture to follow her. We both walked out of the the cleansed room and into a gray looking hallway, no color whatsoever. The halls were only lite by the hanging ceiling fixture that seemed to sway whenever we passed by. Talk about a creepy horror movie; the place was screaming it. She led me down the small hallway that divided into four sections; we went right. When we got to the end there was a faded brownish-blue door that read 'Supplies'. The purple lady took out a ring of keys out from her pocket, ran through the assorted keys and grabbed the right one. Unlocking the door, the knob make a clicking sound letting us pass through. The supply closet was a decent size, bigger than the normal I think. Inside another light fixture hung from the ceiling. Three wooded shelves filled up most of the closet, they had all kinds of things; from what I could see clothes. Miss Pauling walked over to the first shelf gathering the uniform for me. Her hands scavenged the shelf for the right size, she looked back looking me up and down then continued searching. I saw her self perk up having an 'Ah ha, I found it' moment. The second shelf didn't seem to provide a lot, just some socks; the third carried my new shoes. With everything gathered in her hands she jerked her head for me to following again. We reached the second part of the hallway back to the four sectioned off hallways; we walked toward the second one to the right. Another door appeared, except this one was appeared different. This door was Red instead of a brownish-blue, the knob looked gold instead of a rusted copper, and instead of having the label written 'Supplies' it read 'New Recruit.

"This is going to be your new room, until we figure out what class best suits you." She fumbled with the ring of keys. "In the meantime get your new uniform on, and meet me outside your door in... let's say... 15 minutes?"

I nodded cheerfully. She smiled back in pleasure, unlocked the door opening it. I walked in through instinct looking at my new room to get a gist of the surroundings. She walked in handing me my new clothes, looked around the room and sighed before leaving. Once the door was closed I turned around toward the bed. It sat in the corner of the room with a Red bed-sheet, it matched with the two pillows and solid wall paint. From all the information that I gathered I assumed that I was going to be on team RED. Despite the obvious characteristics of the room, I was definitely going to be on the RED team. I laid the pile of clothes on the bed, while I took off my clothes. It felt great to get a fresh new pair of clothes, I felt clean and freshened up, even though I haven't took a shower yet.

The uniform was the color black, all of it. I wore the black long sleeve shirt that seem to fit my body perfectly(looked like the skin tight suit ones), the black leggings that had white stripes only on the sides of my legs, and these black shoes that looked like socks. They gripped to the figure of my feet, feeling rather comfortable. Inside the room I spotted a bathroom, inside was all the necessities of a regular bathroom. _Oh I am soo taking a shower after this._ A pit of excitement hit my stomach, I was beginning to feel nervous. Although, I don't know why, maybe it's just because everything was changing too fast for me.

I looked into the bathroom mirror fixing up my hair a bit, brushing all the tangles out. I put my hair up in a ponytail and walked out ready to begin my exciting day. I opened the door to be startled at the sight of Miss Pauling, I wasn't expecting her to be standing so close to the door. "Wow that fits you great. Alright follow me." I did what I was told, we reached another room but this time it was bigger. The room looked like the size of a huge high school gymnasium.

"Welcome to the training room. As you can see there are three sections of the room. The room that you see in front of you is the first section of the trial we are going to be beginning with." I walked over to the first part test. There wasn't really much, just a machine, towels and water fountain. She waved for me to get onto the machine, she hooked up two sticky patches on my forehead, each one of them above my eyebrow. An oxygen mask was then placed over my head onto my mouth and nose, wires collided together making it hard to move. She then guided me up onto the machine.

"Okay, I'm going to start the treadmill on a slow pace, the oxygen mask I put on you will measure the amount of oxygen that you taking in and then the amount of carbon dioxide you're breathing out. Every few minutes I'm going to bunk up the pace on the treadmill to see how much you can withstand."

I nodded acknowledging the comment. I stepped up, she began pressing the buttons on the dashboard. The platform beneath me started to move, it was slow at first but increased in pace, soon I was jogging. Everything seemed good for 5 minutes but then I started to get tired. My legs started to get a burning sensation, my carbon dioxide levels started to rise; she looked at the monitor writing down new changes. Even my heart, it started to increase. Soon, but not soon enough, she turned down the pace until it made a complete stop. As a usual side-effect my legs felt like jello. I hunched over breathing in and out rapidly trying to catch my breath.

"I'll let you take a 5 minute break before we begin the next trial." She held her clipboard close to her side before exiting the room. I went over to the water fountain in the side of the room. My throat had never felt so relieved, the cold water felt the cool touch from my terrifying nightmare. When the five minutes had passed up I walked over to the next room. The walls looked wounded with scorch marks, it left me uneasy. Miss Pauling shuffled over to the center of the room.

"Alright, are you ready to begin your next section of the test? Good, this is just going to be a simple weight test to see how much you can carry with your muscles."

She held a remote that looked like it controlled the room light, but they ended up doing something different. I saw her click the first button on the remote, a crane from above dangled from the ceiling closing in on the ground. It let go of the weight it carried placing it on the ground; at the same time put 2 more weights down. Each weight had it's own amount of pounds dedicated to itself; along with the size, each presenting at a larger portion then the other.

"Okay, Just lift up the first weight in front of you."

I looked over to her and then back at the object. Walking over to the weight, I lifted up my sleeves up to prepare myself. I wiped off my hands on my new leggings taking care of the sweat. I slipped my hand under the grip clenching both of my hands together. I breathed in lifting it up with slight ease, but with hesitation. I looked over at the lady who has been guiding me, she nodded her head writing results I assume. Now the for the next one, actually wasn't as bad as I thought, but then my hands almost gave out. On the last weight I had this feeling something was going to go wrong, either I drop it on my foot or I fail picking it up at all. As my if I could tell the future, I was unable to pick it up. No matter how much I tried.

"Interesting, good I would have been surprised if you really could pick that up, it weighs 200 pounds."

I gave her a shocked face looking back at the others. "Oh, the first one was 50 pounds and the second one weighed 100 pounds." She continued writing with the pen of hers. "In addition to the weight test, you are going to shoot one of these." She walked to the back of the room opening the rusted closet in the back. Out she carried a rocket launcher over to me. _What kind of business am I getting myself into?_ I thought to myself.

On the remote she pressed the very last button, out from the wall was a target. The material looked like that of wood, although it was shaped like a human. A mercenary? The cardboard looking test dummy held a target on it's head. "I need you to shoot the target in front of you, you'll get three tries."

I picked up the rocket launcher, it was awkward at first. I had no idea how to properly hold it, but somehow managed to have a descent grip on it. I closed my left eye focusing on my right on the eye scope. I looked at the target and fired, I didn't realize how powerful the rocket was. I nearly ended up with my butt on the ground. I looked to find the rocket missile no where near the target, it curved to the left when I stumbled back. Okay second time's a go. I made sure that I held myself to the ground to stabilize my position. I looked into the scope holding my index finger on the trigger. I pulled the trigger hearing the missile coming out the rocket, watching it pass by the target once again, but this time missing by a hair. I pouted before trying the last one. I closed my eyes thinking about the target, my surroundings, the air. I reopened my eyes viewing the still target that stood a good few feet away from me. I held up the rocket scope up to my eyes once more, looking through the glass I payed attention to my target. I slowly breathed in keeping my breath in... three... two... BOOM! The blast was louder this time, followed by the fractions of wood exploding. Nothing else was left besides the remains of wood chips.I put the rocket down turning my head to see a reaction, all seemed the same. Taking the black shiny pen and jotting down results.

"Alright on to the next, this last section of your first trial will be tough, but I have some confidence in you. So good luck."

Miss Pauling opened up the door to the next room, the walls all seemed black. There were lots of florescent lights surrounding the top of the ceiling. There were no shelves, no closets, but it did have water emergency water sprinklers in each side of the walls. My head turned to see what I was getting myself into this time. I couldn't really tell from the room. _Looks like I'm going in blind_ I thought to myself. The lady in purple walked up to me holding what appeared to be a candle.

"Here hold this."

I grabbed the object she gave to me holding it with both hands. "Now I need you to stand as still has possible while I pour some liquid on the floor." I cocked an eyebrow curious about what she meant. _Why would she need to pour water on the floor? "_ I'm going to light this candle aflame, I'm going to need you to stand as still as possible, no matter what happens." She tilted her head down focusing her eye on mine, she seemed very serious. _It's just a candle what harm could come from.._ She took out a match and scrapped it across the clipboard. Her hand closed in on the candle wick, I could feel my hands starting to sweat. The flame mixed with the wick creating another use of light. I couldn't stop starring at the flame it's was hypnotizing, but not in a good way. All my thoughts were coming back to reality when I heard a liquid substance hit the ground. I looked up from the candle to find the lady pouring some weird smelling substance around me, creating a circle. The smell started to get stronger, it was giving me a headache. _Is that... Gasoline. Oh my god... It was gasoline._ I remember my hands starting to shake. I tried pulling myself together, not trying to give out a weakness. I tried my my best to encourage myself to calm down and stop shaking so badly, if I were to accidentally drop the candle I could potentially be set on fire. I looked back up at Miss Pauling trying to get out the last remaining gas from the container she must have found.

"Let's see how well you can tolerate fire." She breathed, shoving her glasses up her nose a little more. At this point, I was beginning to rethink my decision. I didn't want to go through all these bad memories again, although there was no hiding, I knew how to avoid it. Now? I'm being forced to hold a lit flame near my body with highly flammable liquid around me. The first few minutes were nerve wrecking but it got a little better, or so I thought. The wick started to get closer and closer to the skin of my fingers. I could feel the drips of sweat rolling down the side of my face. My teeth started clenching together, my eyes glued to the flame. _It's getting closer... It's going to burn me, I'm going to die. The flame is going to kill me. STOP IT! DO SOMETHING!_

In panic I dropped the candle, it dropped to the ground rolling its way over to the circle of gasoline. My heart pounded, I saw the flame grow stronger like a monster. The monster fed off of my fears; breathed in my worries; it saw my nightmares. I couldn't escape, literally. The orange-yellow glow circled around me like a swarm of bee's. I tried to run but was stopped by the stinging sensation in my hand. I winced from the pain, holding my right hand closer to my body. I lowered to the ground, nearly curling up in a ball. I could tell from my screams from Miss Pauling's hollering. I forgot what she said. _Everything's okay? I'm going to get you out?_ I think that was it. As soon as I realized what she was actually saying something, water rushed out of the water sprinklers extinguishing all my fears. She rushed over to me wrapping a towel around my body.

"Are you okay?" She waited as if she was expecting an answer. "Oh right forgot. Here let's hurry you to your room."

We soon made it over to my room. She closed the door behind her sitting me on my bed, I was still wet from earlier. "I'm sorry, I didn't really think that you would drop it. I think it's safe to call it a day yeah?" Her eyes connected with mine, from the shine of her eyes I looked depressed. Her smile disappeared. "Hey are you okay?" I didn't want to do it, I tried my best but I couldn't help but shed a few tears. I held out my hand showing her the burn. She gasped before heading over to the bathroom gather some medical supplies. "I didn't know you got burned, here come here." She went over to the sink turning on the cold water, I followed behind. She took my wrist shoving the wound under the cold soothing water. I closed my eyes from the sudden jolt of pain in my hand. After 15 minutes of holding my hand under the sink, we both made our way over to my bed. She put some antiseptic and a bandage over it. "I hope this works, I learned a thing or two from Medic." I looked up at her in confusion. "Oh right, you haven't met him yet, don't worry you will." She finished wrapping up the white cotton bandage around the palm of my hand. "There we go, I'll go get you something to eat and then you can rest before tomorrow morning." She got up from the bed and walked out of the room locking the door behind her. Oddly enough I didn't feel like I was in a prison, I felt pretty safe, despite the part where I nearly burned my hand off.

My eyes gazed upon the room, a nice bed in the corner, a old wooden nightstand with some names carved into it-some male and female names-I wonder how many new recruits have gone into this 'war'. An old lamp stood on the center of the nightstand, beside the bed. I kicked off my shoes and headed toward the bathroom, I needed a serious shower. I flipped on the lights to the room brightening up the place, I turned the knob half way to the **HOT** lettering; Water poured from the shower head. The hard pattering noise filled the room, it was peaceful. I closed the door to the bathroom immersing myself in the steam that clung onto to the mirror and lingered in the air. My clothes dropped to the floor before I stepped into the shower, pulling the shower curtain back I stepped inside. The semi-hot water drizzled down my body acting as a relaxant. All the muscles in my body relaxed; stopped tensing. I reached down to the shampoo washing all the dirt, oil, and whatever else was in my hair. I repeated the same for the conditioner, strangely enough it repaired the years of damaged up hair, making it seem silky smooth flawlessness. Looking around the tub I saw a razor blade suited for shaving, now it's been a while, correction LONG while, since I've shaved my leg so they're pretty hairy. I reached over for the razor and started to cut the follicles of hair from my legs, they made the disgusting crunching sound as the blade trimmed the hairs. Ew.

After the refreshing shower, I did what any other person would do after they got out, dried off. Wrapping the towel around myself I then went over to the sink to check myself out. _Wow I look way better after taking that shower._ The brush in the corner of the sink made it's way down my hair, untangling the mangled mess. Out of all the times I've taken a shower putting on pajamas were my favorite part. I placed the brush down and picked up my uniform, but then I realized.. I didn't have any pj's.

 _Well shit..._

I shrugged walking out of the bathroom feeling the cool breeze go right through me. Instantaneously I saw and smelled something different, the smell was overpowering more though. It smelled amazing, I walked over to the bed dropping my uniform on the head of the bed. On the center of it is what looked like a small present and a brown paper bag with some kind of food in it. Of course, I went to the food first. As if a Christmas present I greedily opened the back seeing a white paper note at the top, it read.

 _Hope you like Chinese food_

 _-Miss Pauling_

My hunger started to get the best of me causing me to nearly how pathetic. I reached into the bag grabbing out utensils, a plate, napkins, and a bottle of water. Man was I in heaven. Excitingly I got to use the sense of taste, oh my god this food was phenomenal; totally better than eating scrapes of food of the streets or in trash bins. Blah. Engaged in the processes of eating I almost forgot that I was still wrapped up in a towel, I peaked over to the present that I seemed to have left my mind; curiously ready to open it. I put some more food in my mouth before grabbing the neatly packaged present. I untied the lovely crimson red bow, tore the wrapping paper revealing the surprise, you guess it Pj's. _How convenient._ Swapping myself from the warmth of the towel to the new comfort of fuzzy sleeping clothing, I plopped on the bed eating the rest of my amazing Chinese food. I threw away the empty plate and bottle of water in the small trash bin over by the nightstand. I turned off the lights to the room and hopped over to the bed snuggling myself under the covers, it's been too long since I've been in a bed, and let me tell you IT'S SO COMFORTABLE!

A window shed light into the room casting a mist of light. With my head flat on the pillow my eyes were forced to look up at the ceiling. The night was very calming, still, contained. Everything seemed so rushed, on high alert all the time from trying to stay out of danger in the streets. I thought about the day and the purpose of doing so. I felt pretty anxious and thrilled to see the ending results. I was pretty curious on what class I was going to be in, although I suppose it's was pretty obvious. Tomorrow would be the next day of my second trials. _I hope it will be a little more productive than today's trials_. My thoughts wondered in and out of consciousness, my eyes felt droopy for once; this time I wasn't scared to sleep, so I did.

* * *

 **To be continued...**

 **YAY another chapter down and done with. On to the next. Thank you for the reviews, favorites, and follows. I'm glad you are interested with the story so far, hopefully you're spark will continue from here on out.**

 **THOUGHTS: Looks like Kayla has complete the first trial of her training. Have any idea of which mercenary class fits her?**


	4. Chapter 4: Fixing Exploding Guns

**Welcome to the fourth chapter of the story, thank you all for reading and being interested in the story, also for the reviews!**

 **Enjoy the chapter! :)**

* * *

 **Previous:**

My hunger started to get the best of me causing me to nearly how pathetic. I reached into the bag grabbing out utensils, a plate, napkins, and a bottle of water. Man was I in heaven. Excitingly I got to use the sense of taste, oh my god this food was phenomenal; totally better than eating scrapes of food of the streets or in trash bins. Blah. Engaged in the processes of eating I almost forgot that I was still wrapped up in a towel, I peaked over to the present that I seemed to have left my mind; curiously ready to open it. I put some more food in my mouth before grabbing the neatly packaged present. I untied the lovely crimson red bow, tore the wrapping paper revealing the surprise, you guess it Pj's. _How convenient._ Swapping myself from the warmth of the towel to the new comfort of fuzzy sleeping clothing, I plopped on the bed eating the rest of my amazing Chinese food. I threw away the empty plate and bottle of water in the small trash bin over by the nightstand. I turned off the lights to the room and hopped over to the bed snuggling myself under the covers, it's been too long since I've been in a bed, and let me tell you IT'S SO COMFORTABLE!

A window shed light into the room casting a mist of light. With my head flat on the pillow my eyes were forced to look up at the ceiling. The night was very calming, still, contained. Everything seemed so rushed, on high alert all the time from trying to stay out of danger in the streets. I thought about the day and the purpose of doing so. I felt pretty anxious and thrilled to see the ending results. I was pretty curious on what class I was going to be in, although I suppose it's was pretty obvious. Tomorrow would be the next day of my second trials. _I hope it will be a little more productive than today's trials_. My thoughts wondered in and out of consciousness, my eyes felt droopy for once; this time I wasn't scared to sleep, so I did.

* * *

 **Continuation:**

 **~{:Chapter 4-Fixing Exploding Guns:}~**

My eyes shot open to the sound of a loud annoying sound. It came from the right side of me, I quickly turned over hitting whatever it was. The loud obnoxious beeping sound stop, I realized it was just an alarm. _Whoops._ The time read 6:30 a.m. the sun just peaked from the horizon filling the sky with a orange red shadow. I stretched my arms toward the sky making a groaning sound as I tensed my body. I took a deep breath and immediately headed toward the bathroom. I looked in the mirror and saw a rat's nest that replaced my real hair. Dried up droop left its tracks on the side of my mouth, along with the a little remains of food from last night. I started with my teeth, hair, then face, it started to become a real routine. I changed my bandages from the injury before I placed my hair up into a ponytail and washed my face with the water and soap, that was left on the sink. Patting my face dry I grabbed my uniform changing into the half clean clothes. I walked over to the door and plopped on the floor placing my shoes on.

Two strong knocks came for the door, partially startling me, I finished slipping on the shoe-looking socks before opening up the door.

"Good Morning, ready to start your second part of the trials?"

I nodded my head with a smile on my face. I felt pretty confident to the start of the day, although a little tired, mostly excited.

"Great! How's that hand of yours feeling, because you're going to need it." She chuckled and walked off, assuming that I needed to follow I did. We entered the training gym again, but entered the second section of it. This time the room was bigger than the first section of the trials, instead of three separate rooms for the first trial the second held one huge room. On the side of the room were three karts: The first one with a wrench, blueprints, and what looked like scraps of metal; Second one had straps of bullets and a machine gun; the third one had a weird looking grenade launcher accompanied with over-sized capsules.

Miss Pauling stepped into the center of the room and explained the second part of the trails. "Welcome to the second part of your trails, today you are going to be learning the classes of defense. In front of you, you see three karts. One involves building strategy and critical thinking, the second kart involves courage and strength, the third tactical reasoning and strategy as well. Choose a weapon on the kart and I will explain further on what you have to do."

I finished listening and went over to one of the karts, the first one. I picked up the wrench and blueprints that laid nicely on the silver tray. "Ah yes, for this you are going to have to use that tool to build yourself sentry guns and health dispensers for your team. There in your right hand are the blueprints to those things and more. I will give you a few minutes to look through the plans and then the test will begin. Starting now."

A rush of adrenaline pumped through me, I quickly opened up the blueprints and saw the mechanical design. From my viewpoint it all looked like hieroglyphics, I didn't know anything about construction or engineering, but I couldn't give up. I looked through the rest of the blueprints and decided on the easiest one. At the top of the blue paper the words 'Teleporter' were written.

"You have 3 more minutes until you can start building." said the lady looking down at her stopwatch.

I looked over at the kart to see a crate of supplies in them. I looked at the bits and pieces of them, trying to find the correct materials for the process of building. I looked back at the diagram and back into the crate, I gathered some supplies but before I could continue Miss Pauling told me to begin building. She didn't give me a specific amount of time to finish, but I tried my best. With only the wrench, blueprints, and supplies I began to build. I grabbed whatever looked exactly like the samples on the instructions and went from there. In a pace I placed them together in the center of me, looking from the prints back to the object I was making. _Ok place that there, now for the wrench... Ok, that definitely doesn't go there. Just have to click that on, and now.. Hit it with the wrench?_ I looked back to the instructions making sure I read it right, I did. I shrugged and took the semi-heavy wrench and hit the pieces of metal together. I carefully held, making sure I didn't put too much pressure on the healing burn. The sounds made a big *CLANK* "BAM" "CLANK".

Before I knew it the scrapes of metal started to react together, spinning slowly and then rapidly. Color started to emit from the device as well as noise. _Did I actually do something?_ I may have not known how I did it, but I had that relish of accomplishment flood me. I stood up feeling good, but then I looked back at the prints and saw something that I didn't notice before. In small white ink the number two with an 'x' written beside it was apparent. It appeared I only make one teleporter instead of two. I quickly looked back to the supply kart, but I was too late.

"Ok times up, what have you make so far?"

I slowly stood up in disappointment and pointed to the mechanical device in front of me. "Looks like a teleporter, well sorta, where's the rest of it?" She glanced at the devices I made and looked for the other. I looked at the ground and shook my head side-to-side. "I see, you didn't get to finish, let's see you completed the first one in about 7 minutes. So if you were out in battle you have probably lost half of the time in the game if you finished both of them."

I looked at her with a straight face, not knowing if that would be a good or bad thing. "At least you did better then the lase recruit before you, she threw a fit and ranted about how stupid this was. Anyhow, let's move on to the next."

I agreed with her and picked up the strap of bullets and heavy weapon that looked huge compared to me. "Okay this is going to be a little tricky but I have confidence in you." I narrowed my eyes giving her a 'that's what you said last time' face. "For this all you have to do is aim the gun at the enemy dummies and shoot them down, you will start at certain levels. The first one will start off being easy and then the hardness will increase. I will be outside in another room watching you, you won't be able to see me but you'll be able to hear me. Just listen to the instructions I give and then we can move on."

With her clipboard and pen she walked out of the room leaving me alone in the empty room. I swung the strap of bullets over my shoulder feeling the weight bare me down. The strand of bullets looked like a dress on me, along with the over-sized gun I wielded. I used all my strength to lift up the machine gun to its proper use. That's when I felt a stinging sensation in my hand. The skin felt sensitive to the touch, I ignored the nagging pain focusing on the subject at hand. I heard a familiar voice on the intercom. "You see the white 'X' written in the center of the floor there, stand in the center of it." I did what I was told standing on the white written letter. "We are going to start off with something easy, you'll see a enemy dummy pop up, I want you to shoot it down."

Just as she said a wooden dummy popped up a few feet in front of me, I wrangled the gun as it spit bullets out with full force. The force nearly made me fall back but I held my stance. The metal of the gun chafed against the healing burn, starting to peal back the new piece of skin. My right hand started to slow sting, but I had to keep my cool. The wooden dummy was shot down to pieces. _I think I'm starting to like this gun. The power feels amazing! Besides the part where it's cutting off my skin._ "Great! I'm going to kick it up a notch and try to shoot down three of them."

After she spoke three more dummies appeared and I shot them down with ease, the rate of the shooting was phenomenal, but my speed was super slow. I wasn't able to turn the gun as fast as a simple light pistol, but cause way more damage. The sound of bullets dropping to the ground satisfied me with pleasure, but my arms started to get a little tired. My shoulders cramped up and my legs arms were slouching toward the ground. I arched my back a little more, separating me feet apart as well; this way I could stable out the weight and keep my dominant stance. "You're doing great, let's make things a little more complicated. Try to shoot the moving targets now."

I took a deep breath and got ready to aim for the moving targets. Left and right targets popped out moving back and forth. I turned the gun going back and forth destroying as many of the dummies as I could. My arms started to shake from my strength giving out, at that moment I thought to myself _How could anyone pass this test, they would have to be a bodybuilder or something._ The amount of dummies started to die down along with my will to continue. Finally it all stopped altogether, I dropped the gun and tried to catch my breath. I looked down at my hand seeing it starting to bleed and become irritated. _Come on, you're almost done with the tests. You can hang in there._ Even though all I had to do was pull a trigger I've never felt to exhausted in my life. I could feel the strain in my back already. "Good job you did good for a beginner. You shot 5 out of the 28 dummies." _Five, wow that's terrible..._

"Alright let me just write down a few things and then we can start the next part. In the meantime get ready for the next one."

I took the strap of bullets off my shoulder and threw them on the ground, immediately I felt a million times lighter, almost to the point where I felt like I was floating. I went over to the last and final kart. I picked up the grenade launcher and studied it. I looked like the pill-looking grenades went into gun itself and was shot hitting anything with great impact. I held one of the capsules and was curious how they got it into such a form.

"All done, for your last test we will test you on the grenade launcher to see how good of a strategist you are. Just like the machine gun trial you are going to be hitting targets, each level will get harder than the other. Give me a thumbs up when you're ready, I'll let you have a free trial of just getting use to the gun."

I walked over to the white 'X' and lifted up the much lighter gun to a random location and pressed the trigger. The Red capsule launched out of the gun hitting the wall and flew back at me. I dodged letting it hit the kart behind me. An explosion occurred on impact sending parts of the kart everywhere. _Whoa! That was close, these must bounce off of inanimate objects. Hm, interesting_. I looked up at the intercom giving out a thumbs up. A few seconds later one of the dummies popped up. Instantly I pulled the trigger and one of the capsules popped out exactly hitting the target exploding it into wooden sticks. The same events repeated there selves, more of the wooden targets popped out and I shot them one by one, perfectly hitting each and every one of them. The targets started moving side to side coming at different directions. I looked around my surroundings blasting the capsules off the walls hitting multiple targets at once. All of the bombs ran out leaving the test to end.

"Wow, you did great on this test Kayla. You got all of them, every 30 of them. That about sums up all of the tests for today, you can head back to your room and get washed up. I will come get you once lunch is ready."

I nodded leaving the grenade launcher on the floor and headed back to my room. The morning went by pretty quickly with all the tests. I opened the door and headed straight to the bathroom, the shower felt amazing once again; it never failed. It felt like a reset button, even with the roughest of days showers seemed to be my escape. My muscles relaxed taking in every hot drop of water drowning my stress away. I didn't bother washing my hair or anything I just let the water fall on my exposed self. I looked down at the shower's tiled floor, the clear water swirled into the drain. Small speckles of red mixed in with the pure water contaminating it with it's dark color. My right hand started throbbing. I turned off the water restricting its flow, drying myself off as I tried to find a new bandage for my hand. I opened up every drawer I could find, but no bandages could be found. I put back on my uniform checking the time, exactly 11:00 p.m. It didn't feel like it, but I had tested for about 4 and a half hours. I still had a few minutes before Miss Pauling would get me so I took the time to find myself some supplies, surely there would be something in the supply closet right?. I walked out of the room and continued down the halls, past the training room, and down another hallway. _It should be down here somewhere... Did I take a wrong turn, uh my hands going to start leaving a bloody trail._ Sooner than later I came across another door, but this one looked different from the others. Above the door frame read 'Hall of Fame'. I looked in disbelief, _why would a room be called a Hall of Fame, unless this room was a hall_.

My curiosity got the best of me, my hand reached for the knob; I twisted ever so cautiously, as if I was sneaking into a babies nursery. The door opened revealing a dark room. I felt for a light switch and flipped the lights on, lightly closing the door behind me. One by one a sequence of lights flickered on, the room seemed like an actual hallway (believe it or not). I stared down the hallway in astonishment. On the right side of the walls had pictures of these, I'm assuming-famous people that fought during this so-called war. On the left side a collection of, what looked like, historical weapons and newslines from the past was displayed in a glass container. I focused myself toward the wall of pictures; It looked like they were in 3 sections. I noticed all the people were male, one of them looked to be about in his early 20's while the oldest looking one looked about 50. _These must be the mercenaries that work here_ I thought. At the very top their was a silver rectangular plaque that read **Offense** ; two others read **Defense** and **Support.** Under the section of **Offense** three photo's were presented. Engraved right below the pictures were the class names.

Class: Scout

Class: Soldier

Class: Pyro

I looked at the **Defense** seeing the same layout as the rest; their ID picture and name of class below them.

Class: Demoman

Class: Heavy

Class: Engineer

I looked slowly at all the men that represented each of the classes, when I got to support I noticed something familiar about the Spy class. I looked closer toward the picture seeing the same man that I saved back in Pennsylvania. _So he represents the Spy class, huh. That explains about everything._ I turned around to continue reading the newslines from the old articles. The small black ink print started to fade away, I looked in the corner of the paper; stating the date back to the 1820's.

 _How long has this war been going on? There must be more to this war than I really know; what I'm being told._

"Fascinating isn't it."

I gasped sharply turning around. My heart instantly started to race, face somewhat flushed. _Dang it... Must have lost track of time._ I didn't know what to do or say, but I could do was stare in sorrow.

"Looks like you found the Hall of Fame." said Miss Pauling, breaking away the awkward silence. She walked over to the photos of the mercenaries, speculating the lightly dusty photos. "I guess you already know these are the mercenaries." She looked back at me with her bright green eyes, I nodded. Her chuckle made me relax, I approached standing beside her. I stared at all the mercenaries in curiosity, amazement. I wondered what they were like, what their job was, and how they did it. As if she could read my mind-perhaps it was my facial expressions that gave it away-she started to describe each one of them.

"Since you're going to be on the team, it's only fair to tell you what to expect from your teammates. Here you have your Offense." she pointed to the section of mercenaries in offense. "Scout, Soldier and Pyro. Scout's the fastest one on the team, female and male alike. They can be rambunctious and annoying, oh an they're known for their flirting; they are the athletic ones on the field. Next is Soldier, they are known to be leaders, great speakers, but don't be fooled by their title. Soldiers can be... crazy, loud, and also annoying. Next, we have the Defense."

I grabbed her arm signaling her to stop. I noticed that she forgot one of the mercenaries, the Pyro one. I looked at her and then pointed over to his picture. "Oh... Did I forget that one? Whoops. That's our Pyro, he... or she sees the world in a different point of view. They are the misunderstood part of the classes. You won't be able to get much out of them, no one really know for sure why they see what they see. Let's just say they can be known as the pyromaniac." She looked at me with a half smile.

 _Why didn't I see this coming. During the first part of the trials, the fire, that's the pyromaniac test. Great, just great. I'm going to have to deal with a fire loving teammate._ The pit of my stomach started to ache, I crossed my arms around me trying to stay comfortable.

"With Defense you'll have your Demoman, Heavy, and Engineer. Demoman, a.k.a demolition expert, they are tough scotts. Don't let their accent intimidate you though, their a softy." She nudged me, I smiled a fake smile. "Although, they do appear drunk on the battlefield most of the time. Anyways, Heavy; they are your heavy weapons expert, they will be the big guns. They are both family oriented, family is everything to them. You won't have a problem getting along with them, just try to stay away from their hugs. Seriously, there's a reason we call them heavy. Next, Engineer; born and raised in Texas these texans love to build. Hence the word Engineer. You'll see them out on the field building sentry guns to take down opposing teammates, health dispensers incase a Medic isn't nearby, and teleporters to get you to a specific location fast. They're very loyal and kind."

She paused for a moment for me to process all the information. So far all the mercenaries sounded great, well most of them at least. They all sounded like a real family, something that I haven't had in a long time. Which ever class I get, hopefully they'll except me as family. I stopped staring at the Defense classes and nodded for her to continue.

She inhaled another breath getting ready to describe the last class. "Last, but not least, Support. In this class section you'll have your Medic, Sniper, and Spy. The Medics will be out on the field helping mostly their heavies, for some odd reason that's become a thing, but they'll be out and about healing their opponents when they are injured. Some people would call them psycho for all the experiments they try out, but I wouldn't worry about it. Sniper's, these guys are quiet, you won't see them around a lot. Their job will be to snipe from above hitting incoming targets that pose a threat. They mostly stay up in the trees or somewhere isolated. They don't really like to create conversation, but if they do consider yourself lucky. Last is Spy. Spies are mysterious, secretive, and cryptic. They like to stay in the shadows, getting their enemies from behind. If you see them out on the field, chances are it's too late. They like to roll like the Sniper's, you won't see them a lot as well." She looked back at me with a friendly smile. "Those are just some things to expect from the mercenaries." She pushed her glasses up before slouching back some. I grinned a little trying to see which class that I would fit. I remember hoping it would be a cool class like Engineer or Medic, some class that would be a major credit to the team.

A monstrous sound came from the room we were in. I looked down at my stomach feeling the tightening get worst. "Goodness, it's almost 2 p.m. We should get you some lunch you must be starving." She quickly took her eyes off her watch and rushed to grab my hand. I cringed in pain feeling the sharp sting travel up my arm. She leg go quickly seeing to pain in my eyes. "Sorry! Forgot about that, wait... Shouldn't you be wearing a bandage? Oh nevermind let's get you something to eat and patch you up." We left the room walking over to the kitchen to get me some lunch, and hopefully find a bandage to the wound. I believed that Miss Pauling was a good person. She cared for the mercenaries, all the things she's learned from them, including their personalities. I found it honorable. She truly is amazing, though I've seen her before; even though I didn't know it. Already knowing more and more about her personality, I honestly wanted to know more about the mercenaries, I needed to know more about them. I still had so many more questions like; what were their names? Did they always call them by their titles? What's the point of this war? Will there every be a conclusion?

 _UHHH! If only I wasn't so stubborn to talk things would be so much easier. I just... I just can't. My mind wants too but my brain refuses to comply. WHY MUST THIS BE SO FRUSTRATING! Maybe my emotions are getting the best of me, I'm in pain and my stomach is begging for food. I just need time to think clearly and rationally, before I cave into darkness._

* * *

 **To be continued...**

 **YAY! Here's another chapter. Hopefully this one is enjoyable as the rest. Have any changes to who she might be? No? That's fine. THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING YOU BEAUTIFUL VIEWERS, I LOVE THE SUPPORT YOU GUYS GIVE ME. Today Kayla gets to know a little more about Miss Pauling with who she is as a person. Also the discovery of the Hall of Fame for the mercenaries, it's got Kayla thinking what's really going on with this so called 'war'.**


	5. Chapter 5: Healing Shot Stabs

**Thank you everyone for following and favoriting the story! It really mean a lot.**

 **Enjoy**

* * *

 **Previous:**

A monstrous sound came from the room we were in. I looked down at my stomach feeling the tightening get worst. "Goodness, it's almost 2 p.m. We should get you some lunch you must be starving." She quickly took her eyes off her watch and rushed to grab my hand. I cringed in pain feeling the sharp sting travel up my arm. She leg go quickly seeing to pain in my eyes. "Sorry! Forgot about that, wait... Shouldn't you be wearing a bandage? Oh nevermind let's get you something to eat and patch you up." We left the room walking over to the kitchen to get me some lunch, and hopefully find a bandage to the wound. I believed that Miss Pauling was a good person. She cared for the mercenaries, all the things she's learned from them, including their personalities. I found it honorable. She truly is amazing, though I've seen her before; even though I didn't know it. Already knowing more and more about her personality, I honestly wanted to know more about the mercenaries, I needed to know more about them. I still had so many more questions like; what were their names? Did they always call them by their titles? What's the point of this war? Will there every be a conclusion?

 _UHHH! If only I wasn't so stubborn to talk things would be so much easier. I just... I just can't. My mind wants too but my brain refuses to comply. WHY MUST THIS BE SO FRUSTRATING! Maybe my emotions are getting the best of me, I'm in pain and my stomach is begging for food. I just need time to think clearly and rationally, before I cave into darkness._

* * *

 **Continuation:**

 **~{:Chapter 5-Healing Shot Stabs:}~**

That annoying sound came again, the same beeping, same pitch, same time, same reaction. I opened my eyes feeling more tired than normal, my body ached and my body was shivering. For some odd reason I wasn't feeling myself that day; speaking of day, what day was it again? I had lost track. My mind was distracted, I grabbed the covers positioning myself in the fetal position, preserving as much body heat as possible. The window in my room didn't have any curtains or frame, so I couldn't close if I wanted too. The cool breeze sneaked into the room misting a slight chill over me. The trees from the outside shuttered under the wind, it's leaves cheering for more. Some of them were rebellious leaving their stable home to only die once they touched the ground. Their color changed as they suffocated from the lack of oxygen, purples, oranges, yellows, and reds; who knew death could be so pretty. Just like the past two days I've been here, my regular routine stuck: Get up, brush teeth, put up hair, put on uniform, skip breakfast, and wait for Miss Pauling to direct me to the training area. The room resembled the same one from the second trials. I looked around seeing the same three karts to the side of the room, all in a straight line. As for targets, they were different-well some of them-one of them looked like one for target shooting. Seeing it made a chuckle a little, it reminded me of the time my father wanted me to go and practice some gun training for protection, only to have my mother disagree on the idea. I don't blame her though, I wouldn't want a 10 year old wielding a gun either. She was never to fond with guns anyway, never liked the sight of them.

"Hey! You okay?"

I looked around coming out my thoughts, I saw her eyes searching for an answer. Her hand rested on my shoulder, I nodded focusing on the subject at hand. She slowly took her hand off me, gripping her clipboard closer to herself once again.

"If you say so, are you ready to start with the last of the trials?"

I gave her a fake smile and a confident nod. She gave a little smile in return. "Good to hear. Just like the second part of the trials I'm going to be standing behind a control center and monitor you. The test you'll be taking today is the Support classes: Medic, Sniper, and Spy."

Automatically I was thinking about the man who I'd help. I knew there was something strange about him, but I wasn't expecting anything like this. I came back into reality listening on to what she had to say. "Do you remember what we did last time?... Good because that's exactly how we're going to do everything today. Just wait till you hear my voice on the intercom and then we can begin."

She stepped out of the room leaving me to be surrounded in my thoughts. I looked at all the equipment that was left on the karts. One of the devices looked like something that would be off of ghost busters, it looked awkward but manageable; the second looked like a classic sniper rifle with the accessory of bullets to compliment it with; the last had a whole collection of devices. _I assume this is for the Spy, seems complicated._

The ear piercing screech from the intercom made me jump, I turned around looking up at the intercom with amusement. "Sorry about that." said the woman on the other side. I gave her a thumbs up and selected the first weapon. I felt a little ridiculous wearing something that was a little bigger than my size, but as usual I managed.

"You have selected the Medi-gun. As you probably guessed Medic uses this devices to heal his teammates, they usually help the heavies more. Anyways, this devices helps heal teammates that are at low health, once charged to 100% you can do an uber-charge. That will give your teammate a limited amount of time to be practically invincible. To use it you need to pull that lever right there by your hand and it will emit a red looking mist, aim it at your co-worker and he or she will be healed."

 _Seems easy enough._

"I'm going to bring out some dummies, just like the second trials we will start out easy and increase the difficulty from there."

I looked up at the intercom giving another thumbs up. I lifted up the Medi-gun a little higher ready for anything to come. A noise came from my right, the simulation was beginning. A strange noise could be heard from my right, a dummy came out from the extra supply room in the far right corner of the room, the testing subject looked different from all the other. It's texture looked like plastic, and looked like that of a manikin. It's color appeared red and marched in front of me, pulling the lever a red mist emitted from the devices attaching itself to the subject. On the back of the dummy was what looked like a battery, every time I would emit the red flow the battery would remain fully charged. The same sound occurred, but this time on the far left side of the room. It looked like the same dummy except it had the color blue. It looked like it was holding some kind of gun, one that did damage, but not to me. The dummy shot at my teammate, but did no damage as I was 'healing' it. the dummy on my side shot it's gun-looking weapon and shot at the enemy; it's health meter level went down until it fell to the ground. Two more of the Red dummies came out, along with three more Blue ones.

They all started to move, in a running pace, I went along to their sides healing from right and left. Turning around every few second regenerating their health meters as fast as I could. I didn't want any of them to die on my watch, if this war is real I wouldn't want anyone to die on my watch. I quickly healed as many as I could, the number of Blue dummies started to increase. The humming of the Medi-gun continued for a few minutes before I heard a crashing sound behind me. My body instantly turned around to see one of my teammates on the ground dead, it's health meter hit zero. _Had I forgot to heal that one? I need to focus more!_

I turned back around to see another one of the dummies fall to the ground, my heart started to race. There were more blue dummies than red, it was just me and one more red dummy. I had to make this one count; I ran over to the dummy forcing my hand back a powerful red mist attaching itself to my teammate. The humming began to hum louder and louder until a pulse of red electricity ran through the medical device. It lite up in a bright red, a button on the gun started blinking red. I looked down seeing it's color flash. _Is this is Uber-charge?_

Before I could give a thought a group of the Blue dummies charged for us, instantly I pressed the button. A rush of power blanketed over me submerging me in a hue of red; with my teammate we were both glowing red. My teammate started to dominate all the blue dummies killing them instantly. The power began to die down leaving me to feel a little drained. I panted looking around to see all the blue opponents were gone. The last standing red dummy went back to its chamber until another recruit like me came by. I roughly placed the gun and pack back to it's original spot.

"Great job. You completed the task, although some of your teammates died, you still managed to use the uber-charge to kill all the opposing dummies."

I sat down for a moment trying to return rest from all the adrenaline. A small giggle came from the intercom, I looked up still panting.

"I guess I underestimated how much power you could handle, if you want we can take a small 5 minute break for you to catch up on some energy. I'll get you a glass of water, hang on a second."

With that the intercom bleeped off, leaving me time for some thoughts. I put my back against the middle kart and rested my head back, I closed my eyes thinking about too many things. I was thinking about the great memories I'd had with my parents, with my little sister. She would have been 12 years old if she were still alive. A small tear escaped from my eye, I took my sleeve rubbing it away. My eyes reopened, I remember thinking if I'd made the right choice. I didn't have much to lose, lost my parents, friends, home, everything. It's time I'd move on, right? At that moment a small twist in my stomach could be felt, _wonder if they hated me? Wonder if they didn't accept me, for me. Wonder if they think I'm a freak for not talking... Would they force me to talk?_

 _Maybe I'm just overthinking things. I've been alone for a while, so I could survive not being accepted..._ I bit my lip thinking about all the possibilities.

"Here you go."

I jumped to the sound of Miss Pauling's voice. "Whoa there it's just me, I brought you some water." She handed me the glass of clear liquid. "That should help get you back on your feet, sorry about that by the way. I forgot how powerful the Medi-gun can be." he laughed out a small giggle. There was an awkward silence among us, I felt slightly uncomfortable.

"Well... um... I guess just give me the thumbs up when you're ready." She hesitated when you stood back up and walked out the room. I felt like she knew something about myself that I didn't. She was holding something back, I could sense it. I watched her leave wondering how she got into the job in the first place. I looked down at the glass of water seeing a glimpse of my own reflection, but the thing is it wasn't me-the real me at least. The reflection looked sad, depressed, alone. I placed the cup down and picked up the sniper rifle loading a bullet in the gun. I turned around giving a thumbs up. _Here we go..._

"Next up you have the Sniper Rifle, this test is going to be simple all you have to do is shoot the targets presented, but for a warning they will start to be at different locations and some will be moving. I guess it won't be that easy, but it will give you time to recover from the last test. Alright the test will begin in 5...4...3...2...1." The intercom bleeped off and the simulation began.

In my mind I was thinking about how I was going to do this during the real battle, I'm going to be killing actual people. They'll be dead-permanently-I'll be fighting for my life, and for what. The thought needed to be subsided; I had work to do. I looked through the scope holding the gun steadily, controlling my rate of breathing. The moment reminded of the times I would scroll through YouTube searching up some skills that could be important to me one day. For instance, one day I looked up how to shoot a gun just for the sake of boredom; how to snipe, controlling your breathing is the most important-same with staying calm. Also out of curiosity I searched up how to throw knives... I was a weird child back then, heck still am.

A pop came from in front of me pulling me out of my memories. I focused on the target that popped up and looked at the solid red circle in the middle of the target. I narrowed my right eye, placed my finger on the trigger, slowed by breathing, felt the pulse of my heart, timed the beat of my heart with the moments of stillness. My mind closed out all the other sounds in the room, it seemed as if the room got darker and the target was glowing. It was just me and my prey. My finger put pressure against the trigger of the gun feeling a bit of resistance, then BAM! A crackling noise came from the rifle, the sound was very satisfying. I had almost hit the bulls-eye - just a few centimeters off.

I reloaded the bullets into the chamber, snapping back the hammer. Lined eye sight toward the next to targets and shot; more satisfying sounds. The targets started to move, and surprisingly easy to hit; luckily prediction skills were on top. My feelings started to feel a little more comfortable and confident, I felt at peace for some reason. Before I knew it the test was over. On to the next I suppose.

"Positive results! Good job, now time for the last test. This test is the Spy's test, but you probably already guessed that as well. Now don't be overwhelmed by the amount of technology seen before you. On the very left, you'll see something that looks like a watch. That's called the invisi-watch, it keeps you invisible for a limited amount of time hidden from enemies. That large looking radio device is going to be your Sapper; its job is to damage sentries, destroy teleporters and health dispensers."

I observed the radio-looking device seeing how it looked and worked. Looking at all the other items, I wondered how the he did all this. How did he manage to carry all these things with just a few pockets on his pants. I moved on to the next device, it looked like a silver wallet. Although, bigger than the normal size it seemed to fit in a back pocket or so.

"That's the Disguise Kit, it has the ability to have you shape-shift into any teammate on the opposite side; in other words you can disguise yourself as any teammate on the enemy side. Be careful, there is a catch once you've successfully killed an opposing teammate the disguise will be lifted and your materialize back to your normal looking self."

I looked at the last items on the kart feeling a little relived, finally something I was familiar with.

"The last two objects, a knife and gun. Specifically a revolver and balisong, illegal I hear in some states. In the battlefield you'll mostly see spies using then to backstab their enemies-stab in the right spot you can get an insta-kill, couldn't say the same for the revolver though. Now that you know a little bit more about the weapons and devices in front of you, shall we begin?"

Not going to lie, I was a little overwhelmed at all the things in front of me, all the rules that came with them and instructions, but I couldn't give up now. I took all of the objects stashing them on my body and leaving two in my hands for precaution. As I looked at the intercom and gave a thumbs up, the speaker squealed hurting my ears again, I cringed at the screaming.

"Sorry..." Miss Pauling's voice sounded urgent, a little rushed. "Change of plans Kayla, I just got some news I have to make a decision by morning, so lucky for you we're going to have to cut this class short... no pun intended. All you're going to need is the gun and knife. The test will begin shortly, good luck. Make this last one count."

With that, the sound of the speaker cut off, I was left in the silence. I walked over to the middle of the room waiting for something to happen, it was a little while before I started to feel something. Maybe it was an act of paranoia, I wasn't sure, but someone or something was watching me. A chill ran up my spine leaving behind some goosebumps on my arms. How could I even be cold? I quickly turned around, but nothing was there. I narrowed my eyes trying to concentrate on something, but I didn't know what yet. A weird sensation tingled my back as I turned around again and shifted the knife forward. Out of adrenaline I couldn't remember what I did, but I sure could feel it. A sharp blade piercing the body of a dummy. Down it fell, never to be seen again. That is, until some more can out of nowhere. It felt like I was dancing, moving my feet gracefully, calmly. My body rocking from one side to another, it felt relaxing almost. I felt different, the knife would be my partner. We both danced, winning at everything, but we were both interrupted. My partner had stabbed the wrong way into the dummy and left me for the plastic fake itself. I was left with the my desperate second option. I whipped out the gun placing my finger on the trigger. Through my peripheral vision I could see a mass coming toward me, in instinct I turned to it. Aiming my gun I pulled the trigger the loud pop sounded deeper, as it drilled through the life of my lifeless enemy.

It was quiet once again, I went over to the dummy who stole my partner and claimed it mine again. Fitting comfortably in my hands. Yes, it was different from the switch blade I had, but it could work. I held both the knife and gun, was everything over. It was quiet, nothing seemed to move, not even the announcements came on, so perhaps it wasn't all over? _Is this some kind of trick, maybe she's waiting or me to get caught of guard and once I am she'll..._

As I seemed to distract myself in my mind one of the dummies came running toward me, fast and seeming furious. In a reaction I flipped the knife open and threw it... That's right threw it... Too my own surprise it struck it, right smack-dab in the middle of its forehead. Just inches away from me, it fell before me. I looked down staring at the trick I just did, I didn't even know what to say.. no, think. _Did... Did I just do that... I've done a lot on the streets, but this stoops to another level._ Another familiar sound came from above me.

"I have the results, well the ones for the test at least. Alright, that's it all your test are done. Congratulations you finished all the trails you can head back to your room and get cleaned up, I'll leave you a pair of fresh clean clothes on your bed. Afterwards we can go get you some lunch and then I have a little treat for you."

To be honest the only thing that intrigued me were the parts 'Finished all the trails' and 'I have a little treat for you'. I walked out of the training room not knowing what to expect. I guessed I'd be chosen for the Demoman, Medic or Sniper. I feel like I did a better job in those than the others, maybe the Spy one, but I feel like I didn't contribute enough to earn the title as a Spy. I pondered that, as well as what Miss Pauling had in store or me, walking back to the my room.

* * *

 _12:00 p.m._

I'd finished the meal Miss Pauling had made. Did I mention how much of a great cook she is, I didn't expect it since she always seems so busy. Surprisingly it was really good. She made me some soup, rice and beef with a glass of water.

"Like the food."

I looked at her with wide eyes nodding frantically up and down, some food dropping from my mouth. She chuckled in content revealing a warm side. I saw something in her that I didn't since the day I met her. She seemed relaxed, happy, very warming. The others times she seemed stressed, busy, always in a hurry. this side of her made me feel relaxed as well.

I finished up all the food she had to offer and placed the dirty dishes in the sink. "Don't worry, I'll clean them later." She waved her hand, signaling to leave them alone. She walked over to me and grabbed my shoulder. "Are you ready for the surprise."

I looked at her with glee, giving her a hint of my excitement. "Great, I think you'll like this. Some of them may be overwhelming to you, but don't let that scare you." She pulled handkerchief from her pocket and tied it around my eyes. My ears were on high alert when my eye sight was taken away from me. I followed the sound of her flowing voice and used my other resources to guess where we were going. _She said 'them' I'm guessing she's referring to a person, or a group of people. She's blind folded me, she doesn't want me to see it immediately._

She guided me to the outside, I could tell from the smell, the sounds and feelings of the atmosphere I was being led outside. We walked for a tad, her guiding me with her words and hands. We came to a quick stop before I heard another door open. It sounded short, and thick, deep. It was a car door. _Why would she need a car to show me a surprise._

"Watch your step... AAAnnnnndd there you go, can you feel the seatbelt and buckle yourself in?"

My hand felt for a piece of leather beside me, she guided my hand towards it. My head nodded. A little burst of air hit me when she closed the door. My free hand felt for the buckle, I guessed where the seatbelt was suppose to go until I heard a satisfying click. On the opposite side the other car door opened. The car slightly rocked as she made her way in and closed the door. A clang of the keys fitting into the ignition, she had awoken the beast. A roar of the engine and we started to move.

We both rode in silence until we reached a final stop, she shook me gently partially waking me up in the process. It seemed we'd been riding in the car for a good 10 minutes, I'd drifted asleep from both strange comfort and fatigue.

"We're here. Let me help you out."

I waited to hear the door open as she helped me out. She lead me to another location before we stopped. I felt the heat of her hands behind my head, the cloth of the handkerchief fell from my eyes revealing another building. In the front it said RED painted on it. "Welcome to your new home. You'll be staying here now. Since we had to speed up the process I thought it would be a good time to take you over to the RED base and get comfortable."

I stared at the building in amazement. I could see some lights shine through the building, the base looked alive and well.

"I didn't tell the team that you'd be here, since you're a day early. That's alright though, tomorrow morning I should have your class and uniform ready for you. Until I have that given to you, you'll be able to have a general idea of the base and mercenaries that live inside. Just a fore warning, some of the mercenaries, specifically the Scouts, have a thing for flirting-as I've already told you-so be prepared for whatever they have to say." She took a deep breath. "I guess I should tell them you're here. I'll be right back."

She turned around and pushed open the door to the base, a beam of light shot into my eyes and then vanished as the door closed behind her. I sat down in the dirt think about everything. About the past, present, and my future. _Wonder if they hate me... Make hateful glances..._ I suppose those are the things people have to deal with. It's been around for ages, trying to impress others just to it in. I find it ridiculous, time consuming; too much hassle for the human mind. I also didn't exactly know why I was stressing about it so much, why can't I just accept the fact I am who I am. Apart of me was mostly scared about them wondering why I didn't speak. Another part of me was curious on how they would react, along with how I would handle it. This could be the light I was seeking for, maybe this was the shelter I was looking for. This could be where I find my voice.

The beam of light appeared again temporarily blinding me. I saw the silhouette of Miss Pauling, hearing her soft voice. "There ready for you..." She waved her hand indicating for me to come in. I stood up feeling a little knot in my stomach. _This is it... My future begins here._ I took a deep breath and continued to walk toward the building.

* * *

 **To be continued...**

 **Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Looks like she finally finished the all the trials, now for a bigger test; being introduced to the team. See you guys in the next chapter! Also thank you or all the people who've followed and favorited the story. :)**


	6. Chapter 6: Settling In

**Previous:**

She turned around and pushed open the door to the base, a beam of light shot into my eyes and then vanished as the door closed behind her. I sat down in the dirt think about everything. About the past, present, and my future. _Wonder if they hate me... Make hateful glances..._ I suppose those are the things people have to deal with. It's been around for ages, trying to impress others just to it in. I find it ridiculous, time consuming; too much hassle for the human mind. I also didn't exactly know why I was stressing about it so much, why can't I just accept the fact I am who I am. Apart of me was mostly scared about them wondering why I didn't speak. Another part of me was curious on how they would react, along with how I would handle it. This could be the light I was seeking for, maybe this was the shelter I was looking for. This could be where I find my voice.

The beam of light appeared again temporarily blinding me. I saw the silhouette of Miss Pauling, hearing her soft voice. "There ready for you..." She waved her hand indicating for me to come in. I stood up feeling a little knot in my stomach. _This is it... My future begins here._ I took a deep breath and continued to walk toward the building.

* * *

 **Continuation:**

 **~{:Chapter 6- Settling In :}~**

My anxiety shot through the roof. I began to pick at the skin of my fingers occupying my mind as much as possible. I put my hood over my head to block as much contact from my eyes. I've never been so thankful for washed clothes in my life. Lucky for me, Miss Pauling washed the ragged clothes and returned them to me. Surprisingly they still smelled like home, a part of comfort that will never leave me. Miss Pauling waved for me to follow her inside. I walked with her though the halls until we reached what looked like the kitchen. For a split epiphany I had this déjà vu moment that I've experienced this moment before. The tour through the halls, the nervous feeling; all of it was too familiar. We both reached the end of the hall appearing into the kitchen. I looked around the room to see a group of people just waiting for something to happen. They talked amongst themselves in cliques, mostly through class. Most of, what looked like the, Offense class conjugated by the T.V and couch distracted by the moving pictures on the screen. The Defense group huddled by the poker table yelling and arguing. _Wait they have a poker table? Sweet._ I believe the Support classes grouped by the kitchen talking casually. Looking around, it seemed that some of the classes already had their doppelganger. They had a pattern, one girl and one boy for each class.

Miss Pauling walked in front of me straightening her posture and clearing her throat before speaking. "AHEM! Mercenaries, meet your new recruit." She announced. The whole team stopped what they were doing and looked at me, I had the spotlight. I shuffled uncomfortably before waving at the group. Some had curious looks, others had boredom written on their face. I tried to see what they were thinking, by the looks of their faces most of them were interested. One of the guys from the Offense role jumped off the couch and checked me out.

"Hey there, the names Scout don't wear it out." He placed his elbow on my shoulder talking to me with his boston accent. "I'm guessin' your the new recruit huh. Where'd you come from? Have a name? What class did Miss Pauling pick for you?" He shifted off my shoulders taking a step back gazing at me a little more. "Ya' don't look like a Scout.. Do ya' talk? OH GOD ARE YOU A PYRO?!" His face shifted in horror.

"Scout!" Miss Pauling interrupted. "I think that's enough, I haven't chosen a class for her yet."

He looked at her in disbelief. "Then why is she here?.." He said pointing at me still looking at Miss Pauling. "No offense." I nodded my head acknowledging him. "I thought she should have a chance to get to know everyone, her class will be chosen tomorrow morning." A small beeping sound came from her wrist. "Ah, sorry to leave so soon duty calls." A small laugh came from the Bostonian, I could already tell what his personality was like. "Guys introduce yourselves to the new member of the team" she turned around face me. "I should have your results in by tomorrow, see you later." She passed by leaving me by myself with a group of strangers I didn't know. We all watched her leave the room, when she was surely gone all attention returned to me. There was a moment of silence that seemed to drag on more than I liked, until a man decided to speak up. He stood up from the chair he sat in and began to talk. He wore a yellow construction helmet and goggles, his accent spilled out his country homeland. _He must be the Engineer._

"Well since nobody want to say anything. Howdy, I'm the teams Engineer, I work for the Defense position along with these fella's over here. This is FemEngineer." He introduced his female doppelganger. Her voice had the similar welcoming country accent of her class twin. "Hey there."

"Right here are the Demo's."

They both held a bottle of beer in their hands drinking their life away. They both had an eye patch on their right eye, probably from an incident. Coincidence? They both looked at me saying something that I couldn't comprehend. They were obviously drunk. "Sorry 'bout that. They're uh couple of drunks on and off the battlefield." The countryman gave out a warming smile, chuckling at the two. "Last on the Defense team are the Heavies. They're the strongest of the whole team, physically at least."

The two gave the Engineer a glare before looking at me. They were HUGE, muscles that looked like they could tear a person right in half. The female version looked to hold the same amount of muscle mass. _How could one woman hold so much testosterone._ They spoke with Russian accents, seeming intimidating and strong.

"Da! We are very strong. Nice to meet you." said the male.

"Little puny girl is now a part of team, welcome." She bowing her head with respect, as I did the same.

"Over here we got Offense." He looked over toward the group sitting on the ground and on the couch. "Pyro, if you could..."

"I got dis, yo I'm the Scout, but already know that. That's-"

"I'm the FemScout." She interrupted as the Scout was talking. She made her way beside her twin, both exchanging glances at each other. "Over on the ground there is Pyro. It's our Pyromaniac, you know fire and shit." It looked toward me with its mask, I couldn't see it's facial expressions. I couldn't tell what it, he... or she..., was thinking. "And then you got those two eggheads." FemScout pointed behind her toward the two couples.

"Those are our Soldiers, they're pretty loud and stupid. I'm pretty sure that they aren't even-" Before the Scout could finish, FemScout intervened. She covered his mouth before he could cause any more chaos.

"Communists... He was going to say communists."

"YOU GOT THAT RIGHT SISTER! I'M FROM AMERICA, WHICH MEAN IM AN AMERICAN, WHICH ALSO MEANS I'M NOT A COMMUNIST!" I was slightly startled from the sudden change in pitch. The Soldiers voice was deep, strong, and loud. Not to mention, slightly annoying. His female counterpart stood up with him in a striking pose. It reminded me of something a hero would do after they defeated the villain.

"HE'S RIGHT, BOTH OF US SERVE FOR OUR COUNTRY! FOR OUR FREEDOM, WE DESTROY THOSE BLU COMMUNISTS!" Shockingly the females Soldier voice was just as loud and obnoxious. _This is going to take some time to get use too._

"Can you freakin' stop yelling every time you goddamn talk!" shouted the male Scout, he turned around to where his back was facing me.

"YOU WANNA PIECE OF ME CUPCAKE!" retorted the male Soldier.

"Who da' fuck are you callin' cupcake, you-"

The room was getting intense, making me feel uncomfortable. I backed up a little stuffing my hands in the jacket pockets. I looked at Engie giving him a worried expression, as if he already knew what I was thinking he got in between the two before anything could start. On his left was the Soldier, already right about to punch the living daylights out of the dude; on the right was Scout, who looked like he was going to bash the troopers head in.

"I think that's enough now boys. You're scarin' the little lady."

As sweet as it sounded, I didn't feel too good about being called little. The two looked at me and sat down, both with their arms crossed like little toddlers. The Engineer looked up at me with his goggles, giving me a half lite smile. "Sorry about that. Those two always get in fights, don't worry." He crossed his arms continuing where he left off. All I could do was listen, although I wanted to leave and just head to my room, I stayed and observed all the unique mercenaries.

"As I was sayin' over here is Pyro, this fella' here is pretty harmless." He put his hand up to his mouth, as if telling a secret. "Pyro has the mind of a child. Doesn't know exactly right from wrong, so we try not to bother when he gets...uh... involved with fires."

 _A child... Fires... Great, now I have to worry about surviving with a mentally unstable mercenary, who happens to like fires, in the base._

The Pyromaniac looked at me again waving and mumbling through his mask like a 5 year old child. I hesitantly waved back. "And you already met our Soldiers and Scouts." He gave out an awkward chuckled and looked toward the back. "You guys want to introduce yourselves, or should I?"

"I don't think zhat will be necessary, thank you monsieur." His french accent was familiar, it was the Spy. He straightened up his back and walked to where he was about in the middle of me and the whole support team. He had something between his fingers that emitted a light drag of smoke. He looked at me with his unmistakable blue-gray eyes. "Mademoiselle, we are the Support class. I am the Spy, zhis is our Sniper." He gracefully pointed to the Sniper. He looked really tall, rough looking, and... kind of handsome... Yes, that's right I said handsome.. get over it.

"Noice ta' meet ya' sheila." He gave out a warm welcomed smile and wave. He also carried a heavy accent, one of an Australian.

"And alas, we have our Medic."

The man looked tall, but not as tall as the Aussie. His glasses sat perfectly on his nose, a little piece of his hair strayed from the rest and hung almost like a curl. "Hallo mein Freund. I am zhe Medic, may I just say it vill be a pleasure to experiment.. uh vork with you." He gave out a cheeky smile, with his German accent.

"I believe that is everyone. Ladies, gentlemen we may be dismissed. I'll show the new recruit around, she'll be back for dinner." With a polite bow the Spy walked toward me grabbing my arm and pulling me out the room. I looked back seeing everyone start to leave and go back to their own business. We walked down the hall having a moment of complete and utter silence, it was awkward. REALLY AWKWARD! I didn't know where we were going or what he was doing, but I just went with it. Down the hall we went down some old stairs. Once we were alone I pulled on his sleeve tugging it three times. He looked down seeming pleased and calm as ever.

"Yes?... Oh right, you're traumatized from talking."

My eyes widened.. _How did he.. oh wait.. he's a Spy duh._ I face palmed my forehead, he chuckled. I looked up in a glare. "Why are you looking at me like zhat, stop it. You're freaking me out."

I looked straight ahead giggling to myself, I could have sworn I saw a little grin spread across his face from the corner of my eye. "Ah, here we are. Zhis is the infirmary. You will be seeing Medic for your checkup later today, so he can start you on your surgery."

My whole body tensed at the words. _Wait what.. SURGERY! I wasn't told about this, what surgery. Huh?_ He must have saw me tense because he placed his hand on my shoulder stopping me in my thoughts. "Don't worry, he's just going to give you a heart transplant."

 _Wow... that... didn't even help. IN FACT IT MADE IT WORST!_

A worried looked formed on my face, I looked at him with horror and fear. And for some reason... for some messed up reason he started laughing. I looked at him with confusion, he wiped a little tear that started to form by his eye and he came close to me.

"Madame, everything is going to fine. He has to preform surgery to install you a new heart so you can make it through respawn."

 _Respawn?_

His face totally changed. "You do know about zhe respawn, oui?"

I shook my head giving him a blank face. "Looks like Miss Pauling forgot to mention some things. Well follow me." We both walked into the infirmary where he explained the whole dying and coming back to life through respawn. It all seemed like a video-game to me, or a dream that was too realistic.

 _I guess that's somewhat of a relief, I wouldn't exactly be killing anyone; just temporarily putting them down. I wonder if this is how all the new recruits felt on the first day here._

We moved to a new area of the base, the training room. "Zhis is zhe training room. Here you can practice on the class chosen for you." I looked around, everything seemed the same as a regular gym. I turned around getting ready to continue the tour but I found him starring at me. I gave a surprised expression, but that turned in to curiosity. We both starred for a while before I waved my hand in front of his face. His blinked a few times and continued with the tour as if nothing happened.

 _What was that all about... Creep._

"This part of the base is where we will be going out when the war starts. Here is the respawn area, where you'll be getting ready for battle." We walked a little down to find a bathroom. "Here are the bathrooms, on the right are the men's; left girl's. Don't get confused." He gave out a smirk that made me blush.

 _What's this guys problem, why can't he just give a normal tour without making creepy mysterious moves._

"Now time to introduce you to your room." I followed him over to the third floor where all the dorm rooms were. The hall lead to both sides of the rooms, one side looked like it had all of the class reserved for the females, same went for the other side except for the males. Some of the doors looked occupied as others looked like they haven't been touched for years; dust collected on the knobs. We approached the room that had a silver plaque that read 'FEMALE SPY', it was across the room that read 'MALE SPY'.

 _Wait... why am I rooming here, this isn't for me._

"You can temporarily move into zhis room until tomorrow morning. Unless Miss Pauling says you're class is the Spy, then you'll be permanently rooming here." He had a emotionless face, revealing nothing that I could pick up. I opened the door looking inside, I didn't have a lot to bring-I didn't bring anything-all I had were the clothes on my body.

"I'll leave you, to get use to the room. If you need any assistance, you know where to find me." He nodded and left in silence, I heard the door across my room open and then close. I did the same enclosing myself in my own temporarily room in private. It felt good to be in silence. It took me a while to get use to everything, to process all the information given to me. I sat on the bed collecting all the information I could from what I've been told.

 _So apparently this war is like a whole experiment. They have respawns that revive them once they've been killed in battle. All of the classes play in a specific position such as; Offense: Scout, Pyro, and Soldier; Defense: Demoman, Heavy, and Engineer; Support: Medic, Sniper, and Spy. Some of them already have their feminine doppelganger. Scout has his, Soldier, Demoman, Heavy, and Engineer. The only ones without a female twin is Pyro, Medic, Sniper and Spy. So, if I'm thinking correctly the classes without a counterpart have an open spot for the job. Well, I'll find out tomorrow._

I collected all my thoughts together organizing everything, slowly everything began to make sense. I took a breath looking around the room out of boredom. _I...am...so...bored._ I got up from the bed heading out the room to explore a little more myself. I cruised through the hall and down the stairs reaching the second level of the base. I walked down the hall near the kitchen and was tackled by fast force.

"WHOA!"

Me and force collided together falling on the floor. I looked up seeing that the mysterious energy was already up from the ground. "Hey, sorry didn't see ya' there." Her Boston accent already identified who she was. "Uh... yeah, so I can tell you're not much of a talker are you. That's okay you don't have to answer, not like you probably would anyway. Oh how do you think of the base, wait forgot you can't talk. Nevermind. Glad to see another girl on the team, it's gets boring talking to the same guys all the time. They can be so annoyin' you know. Anyways, sorry for bumping into you. I was just about to win in a fight with Scout but then he started freakin' out in shit." The FemScout helped me up by giving me her hand.

"HEY GET BACK 'ERE!" Scout busted out from the kitchen doors looking around the room, and then straight toward us. "Wow flirtin' with the newbie already? Pfft you're sucha' fag you know that." Scout crossed his arms trying not to laugh.

"Who you callin' fag you weak little baby face virgin."

The room got tense, I was in the front lines of a battle waiting to happen. Scout eyes widened by the sudden comeback, but quickly changed to fury. It was obvious she hit a touchy spot. "WHY I ODDA'!" They both fought, holding back one another. Pinning each other on the walls, teasing each other. Regretting that I didn't escape while I could, I saw that their fury passion turned into something more vulgar. In the middle of each insult they would have a passionate makeout session.

 _What... did I just witness... Most would say 'Ah young love'.. but no, no this was something else._

I left the hall with a discussed look on my face. I went into the respawn area to have a look around, I saw every ones weapon and uniform, some neatly placed while others were thrown in weird places. I exited the room trying as hard as I could to avoid that hallway; but that was nearly impossible. I avoided eye contact with the two Scouts as I passed by to go out the doors that lead to the outside. The air was cool and relaxing. It felt good to get out the base. _Maybe a nice evening walk will be nice._ Out of the base I walked, I didn't know where, but it would be somewhere. After a good few minutes of walking I saw something in the distance. _Is that a van?_ I wasn't exactly sure if I was hallucinating from the part of hunger, but I went with it. As I got closer to the van a man came out. He was tall just like the one Sniper from the Support position. He wore this hat and aviators to match with it. I hesitated as I walked closer, I saw him look over towards me and tilt his head.

"Whot are you doin' out here?"

I gave him a shrug. "You don't talk a lot do ya'?" This was the question that would probably bother me for the rest of the week. I wanted to personally say 'no, I chose not to' but that would be contradicting. I shook my head holding my hands closer to myself. He gave out a small chuckle.

"Oi'm beginning to loike you already." He walked past me heading over to the RED base. He stopped to look behind me. "You comin' with? It's almost time for dinner." I starred at him for a little before joining him on the walk back to the base. _I guess this is a good opportunity to get to know the Sniper, I already have an idea of the Scouts and Spy._ We ended up walking in silence about half way there. I didn't know if he felt comfortable with it, if he didn't know what to say, or if he preferred not to socialize.

"Oi see the spook already showed you around the base." His blue eyes looked down at my light brown ones. I looked up at him cocking an eyebrow. _Spook? Was he referring to the Spy?_

"Uh, Oi meant the Spy, but I call 'im Spook as a nickname oi guess." He rubbed the back of his neck and the stuffed his hands in his pockets. _Was he nervous? I suppose being a Sniper does require you to have little-to-no contact with people._ "Oi don't think oi got to fully welcome ya'. Welcome to the RED team, don't be intimidated by the blokes or shelias. They'll seem... weird at first, but you get use to them. They're pretty much the only family oi got left." He looked to the ground somewhat kicking the dirt from the ground. Snipers voice changed, seeming low almost to a whisper. My eyes glowed with passion. _He lost his family too?_ My curiosity struck some more, I wanted to know more about him; the whole team. We reached the base door, he walked ahead of me opening the door. Like a gentleman he bowed down waving his hand toward the entrance. "Shelia's first." I gave him a bright smile and continued into the entrance reaching the hallway to the main floor (second floor). We both walked together to the kitchen ready to feast on the meal prepared. I opened the door to see, already some of the mercenaries at the dinner table. Both of the Heavies sat next to Medic, leaving him in the middle. The two Scout wrestled next to each other to see who could sit down first, apparently everything is a competition with the two. I sat down at the end of the table facing everyone, Sniper sat by the Scout making a face of regret.

"YO PYRO!" The male Scout yelled.

"WHERE'S THE FOOD. WE'RE STARVIN' IN 'ERE." The female version finished.

"Hold your horses guys, he's working as fast as he can." Engineer came from the kitchen area where Pyro was working hard. _How is he able to cook with that mask on? and those gloves?_ But that was the least of my worries, the food smelled amazing. My stomach growled at each inhale I took.

"MHM MMMHHHMH MPHM MHM." The Pyromaniac mumbled something I couldn't quite pick up.

"No one can understand your mumbles pal."

"He said that dinner is ready."

"SWEET! FIRST COME FIRST SERVE!" FemScout looked at her male twin and jumped up from her chair, he followed right behind her.

Soon enough everyone else followed behind, along with some of the other mercs coming in to join dinner. Once everyone got something to eat, the room was surprisingly quiet.

"Mhm, zhis dinner is very vell cooked. Danke Pyro."

A gleeful cheer came from the little fire child. "Yes, is very good." Both of the Heavies said at the same time. The Scout would have probably thanked him as well but they were busy stuffing their faces with food.

"It's nothin' loike the outback, but it's definitely edible." Sniper said picking at his food and the eating it. I took a bite of my food immersing myself in the classic mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, and grilled chicken on my plate. I moaned at all the tastes sinking into my taste-buds. Some of the crew looked at me with smiles on their faces, Pyro clapped with glee.

"EY! Lad you did a' fine job with the food." The Demoman raised his beer in the air drinking as if his life depended on it. "Cheers, mate." His female twin said, both their drinks colliding ending with a _clank._

We all enjoyed our dinner, all of them starting funny conversations. I listened along with some others. Watching them talk and laugh made me feel happy inside. _This is what a family is suppose to do, talk, laugh, tell jokes to one another._ Everything seemed too good to be true. Not everyone was at the table, the two Soldiers weren't there and Spy was no where to be seen. I wondered if it was a normal thing for them not to show up, as it didn't phase the team a bit. The thought didn't linger too much longer in my mind, everyone started to clean up their dishes and clean the table. I followed in their footsteps placing my dishes in the sink and letting the cook clean them. One by one everyone started to migrate to their own rooms again. I figured I would just head back to my room, but I was taken back by a light grip on the shoulder. I looked back and saw the German man smiling back at me.

"Vould you mind following me for a second."

He didn't give me time to answer, he just walked forward expecting me to follow... and I did. Walking down stairs to the third floor, he guided me to his infirmary. I wanted to ask what I was doing here, but I got this strange feeling that I would regret it. "As you already know I'm zhe Medic, I heal and treat the team when in any need of assistance. I assume you've been told about zhe respawn?" He walked toward his desk and looked up at me. I nodded my head yes. "Zhen you know zhat I have to open up your chest cavity and replace zhat heart of yours with a new one. One zhat vill send you to zhe respawn in case of any... fatalities." His face turned serious, I made a loud gulp.

"Ah, don't be afraid mein freund you von't feel a zhing." His eyes got dark and devious. He walked closer to me snapping on his gloves and picking up a syringe that remained on his desk. He flicked at the needle a few times and gently squeezed it. "Sit down on zhe medical bed, please." His hand pointed to the medical bed, I got up on the bed taking deep breathes. _I trust him, he wouldn't do anything to hurt me... He's a doctor, he was his degrees and PH.D, right? Besides if he was bad at doing his surgeries none of the merc's would be alive. Yeah everything's going to be fine._ I managed to calm myself down and hold out my arm, he gently held it and injected me with the sedative.

My eyes felt droopy and my body relaxed getting comfortable. I closed my eyes to sleep.

* * *

When I woke up I heard the beep of the heart monitor. I also heard the hum of the Medi-gun, it was pointed directly on my chest. It's red mist glowing into me, it didn't feel like much, a little cold but it felt good. Everything seemed to be working so far, I could feel my legs, I could move all my joints, I could see. _Looks like everything went well._

 _COO_

My ears perked up hearing the sound of.. a bird?

 _COO_

My head peered everywhere looked behind me, beside me, and in the corners of the room. I couldn't see anything.

 _COO_

 _Oh god, something went bad during the surgery and now I'm hallucinating. It's only a matter of time before I go completely crazy and get fired._

"You're avake!" I heard that same German accent

I looked to my left seeing the doctor stand by my side, a clipboard in his hands. "Everyzhing vent very well during your surgery. In fact, you healed rather fast. I'm impressed. I put in a new heart for you, now you vill be able to be sent to the respawn without complications." A little bird hopped from behind mind shifting its way to his shoulder, it made a _cooing_ sound.

Medic looked to his bird calling out his name. "Archimedes, zhere you are. I almost thought I left you in zhe pacient." Medic gave out a giggle and stroked the doves feathers. I watched him talk to his bird as if it was another human being. I ignore the fact that he laughed at the thought of leaving the animals in my chest, distracted by the relationship the two had. It was adorable.

Once he was done fondling with his bird he focused his attention on me. "Can you try to get up?" I sat up from the bed and pulled my body to the side, dangling my legs across the small mattress. I slipped down feeling the cold tiled ground, it sent a shiver up my spine. I used support from the bed to help stabilize myself without falling. My legs started to shake a little as I kept putting weight on them, once I felt comfortable enough I let go slowly.

"Good, good." he repeated. "Now try to walk toward me."

Taking a slow step at a time I successfully walked toward him. I felt like a baby again, learning how to take its first steps. "Keep going you are doing great, try to pick up zhe pace." Medic backed up more keeping his hands in position in case I fell. My hands hovered slightly from my thighs, looking down at my feet concentrating. They still felt a little stiff, but walking helped loosen up the gears. My feet shuffled to a normal walking speed, I straightened up my back feeling great and confident. I looked up at Medic giving him an innocent smile, but quickly took a turn for the worst as I lost balance and fell forward. In reaction he stepped forward catching me before I fell.

"Don't rush yourself, Fräulein." I nearly flushed from embarrassment. He helped me gain my balance before letting go. I took another breath and began walking again, finally restoring my capability to walk.

"Take zhese when you feel pain in your chest." I sat in one of the chairs in front of his desk as he sat in the one behind it. The Medic handed me a bottle of pills for the pain. "Take **ONLY** one pill a day, or if you feel pain. Zhey are very strong pills, so I vouldn't recommend taking zhem in zhe morning. Unless you vant to pass out on zhe floor. You should take zhese for about 3 days, but seeing how fast you recover 1 or 2 days should do."

I nodded to his instructions and took the pills and headed out of the room. I walked down the hall heading back up to my dorm room. As I walked up the stairs to the main floor my head drifted toward the window as I passed it. The stars glistened lighting up the sky, but it wasn't as stunning as the moon. It was full, pure, and calming. I stood looking out the window for a while, not paying attention to the time in gazing.

"Hey there."

I turned around seeing the southern female. I gave her a wave and went back to my business, she joined me. "Pretty out there, ain't it." I bowed my head. "I know you haven't been here very long, but how you holdin' up. Everything doing alright?" She really did seem genuine. It seemed she was really trying to create a relationship, a great friendship was bound to happen.

I looked at her and opened my mouth but no words came out. Nothing but empty air, so I closed it back up grunting at myself. She gave me a pat on the back. "It's alright, no need to get all flustered. Have any trouble with anything, or anyone botherin' you just come get me and I'll knock some sense into their thick skulls." I gave out a laugh and smiled, giving her that 'thank you' look. She acknowledged it and headed on back upstairs to her room. FemEngineer seemed like a really nice person. She cared about her teammates, but get in her way and she won't be afraid to knock you back down in your place. She was feisty, confident, kind, and level-headed.

I moved on from the stargazing spot back to my 'room'. I opened the door to the dorm room entering with slight pride. I guess it finally hit me that I was appreciated here, although some of them seemed to despise me a good portion looked liked they wanted to become good friends. I closed the door and headed straight toward the bed. I didn't bother putting on any PJ's-a clean pair were neatly placed on the bed for me, I wondered who did that-I just laid there thinking all about today. I met some new people, figured out some of their personalities, listened to their conversations finding out some of their interests, talked-or rather listened-to what they had to say; everything was great. I felt like I was actually getting involved in something, like a part of my life was left here the whole time. It was only a matter of time before I figured it all out.

I laid on my stomach looking at the small alarm clock on the nightstand. _10:00p.m_ my eyes widened at the time. _How long was that surgery again?_ I remembered having dinner around 5:30 to 6 and then arriving at the infirmary somewhere near 8 p.m. I sighed trying my best to toss half of the covers on me. My whole body relaxed feeling the pain start to form in my chest. I had a pretty high pain tolerance, just enough to ignore the throbbing in my chest. I felt like the night was my best friend, everything was still and quiet. I had time to think back on the day, I had time to think about the future. I had the time to think about my class. _I wonder what class I'll be. I definitely won't be Pyro, there's no way. Sniper, maybe. Medic, there's a possibility. Spy, the option is open._ I let my mind flow through the possibilities. Before I could tell my mind drifted far away, into another world. My eyes closed shut, the world was black. The sounds were slowly fading, I was asleep.

* * *

 **To be continued...**

 **This is probably the longest chapter I have done so far for this story.**

 **Alrighty so Kayla is introduced to the team, having her doubts about what the team will think about her. Later to find out they aren't so bad, a few problems here or there but overall a good team. In the same context most of them think of her the same way. She now knows, sorta, her way around the base. She received surgery to help her respawn in the... well, respawn. The night finally shines down upon them and she falls asleep at her new dorm. All we have to find out in the next chapter is WHAT CLASS IS SHE?!**

 **Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE REVIEWS AND FOLLOWS THEY REALLY MEAN A LOT! Till the next chapter, I'll see you guys soon.**


	7. Chapter 7: Support Class

**Previous:**

I laid on my stomach looking at the small alarm clock on the nightstand. _10:00p.m_ my eyes widened at the time. _How long was that surgery again?_ I remembered having dinner around 5:30 to 6 and then arriving at the infirmary somewhere near 8 p.m. I sighed trying my best to toss half of the covers on me. My whole body relaxed feeling the pain start to form in my chest. I had a pretty high pain tolerance, just enough to ignore the throbbing in my chest. I felt like the night was my best friend, everything was still and quiet. I had time to think back on the day, I had time to think about the future. I had the time to think about my class. _I wonder what class I'll be. I definitely won't be Pyro, there's no way. Sniper, maybe. Medic, there's a possibility. Spy, the option is open._ I let my mind flow through the possibilities. Before I could tell my mind drifted far away, into another world. My eyes closed shut, the world was black. The sounds were slowly fading, I was asleep.

* * *

 **Continuation:**

 **~{:Chapter 7- Support Class:}~**

It was happening again. The dreams-no not dreams-nightmares. They stopped since the day I arrived here, but then they started up again. The smell stuck in my nose, the smell of charred wood. From my last dream I couldn't move, this one was an exception. I woke with sweat spread across my forehead, my armpits, and chest; if someone saw me they would have thought I'd ran a marathon. I thought I would have expected something similar to happen, an event of history repeating itself. Instead, I wasn't in my room, I wasn't in the same house, I didn't hear the painful screams of my parents or sister. This dream-scratch that-nightmare was different. Yes there was a fire, but it wasn't in a normal house, it was in the base. I heard the crackle of the fire behind the door. I saw the fog of smoke peak from beneath the door frame. I jumped out of bed immediately pressing the back of my hand against the door. I flinched at the pain erupting from my hand, it nearly singed the flesh off me. I ran over to my bed ripping the covers off the mattress, exposing it. Next, I ran over to the door stuffing it under the gap between the door frame and floor as much as I could, to prevent the excess smoke from getting in. I frantically looked around searching for an escape route. _The Window_ I automatically think. I speed my way over to the open window peaking my head to look down. _That's quite a ways down._ All the dorm rooms were on the first floor of the base, all the way at the top. It was a good three floors down, not a lot to do some serious damage but enough that if I landed the wrong way I could potentially sprain or brake my ankle. _Stay and die a slow painful death from suffocating in the smoke, or risk braking a bone to escape that from happening._ It was pretty obvious choice. I debated how I was going to jump, but that was my disadvantage. Too much thinking can prevent you from doing stupid things, yet it was stupid for doing just that. My head looked toward the ground, taking a deep breath I gripped the sides of the window and propped my legs over the window sill. I quickly prayed before falling to the ground. I had landed on both my feet letting them receive most of the pressure, then shifted that to my knees. A small pain shot up my leg, but it wasn't too serious. My thoughts weren't clear, they weren't rational. I ran away from the building but stopped dead in my tracks. _What am I doing!? I have teammates in there, I have to go back._ I turned around looking at the glowing base. The glow from the flames emphasized during the night. I observed the building seeing the top floor be engulfed in flames, from what I could see the main floor was slowly being consumed. I'd assumed the third floor was untouched, for now. In desperation I ran back to the base. The entrance was locked but with all the strength I could, knocked it open. Once the door flung open my head rapidly looked for any sign of life, my ears listened for a noise, my eyes searched for a movement. Nothing.

I went deeper into the main floor going into the respawn, no one. I checked the bathrooms, showers, nothing. The fire was becoming more excited, its fumes scattering throughout the base. Smoke started to find its way into my eyes making them water. I covered my nose and mouth with the sleeve of my shirt. A sharp sound of wood breaking came from the location of the stairs, behind the noise was the crash of wood falling in on itself. I ran from bathroom area into the hallway where the second floor stairs had collapsed. Burnt flakes of wood floated in the air irritating my lungs, it was becoming more difficult to see and breath.

 _"...uhhh"_

I stood still making sure I was hallucinating. Did I hear something? I listened closer, it was a while before I heard another moan coming from the kitchen. I ran into the room seeing Scout almost crushed from the ceiling that caved in above him.

"SCOUT!" I yelled, eyes filled with tears. _I talked... I didn't care, this wasn't the time for contemplating my actions._ He was too weak to speak any longer, surprisingly. I lifted the pieces of wood that fell on him giving him a shoulder to limp on. I carried him over to the entrance doors to the base, letting him get a wave of fresh air. I softly placed him on the ground having him lean against the doors. "Is anyone else in there?!" I sounded frantic, worried, scared. He gave a weak shrug letting his head hit the back of the door. I looked behind me seeing the flames come down, ready to consume the rest of the second floor. I was in a mode of adrenaline, I still had the third floor to check. With irrational thoughts I speed toward the stairs running down the steps, skipping a few in the process. My feet reached the last step and made it instantly into the infirmary. There the Medic and Heavy were together. Medic was on the ground with a bit of blood surrounding him, Heavy was holding him like a baby. He looked up at me with the saddest of eyes, my heart felt sympathy for the man. I grabbed his arm with the strength I had left, pulling him to the exit. "We have to go, this place will go down in flames at any-" before I could finish I was immediately stopped by a mound of falling wood. They all fell stacking on top of each other dispersing everywhere to block the entrance. Heavy pulled my back so that I wouldn't get hurt. He patted me to see if I was okay, I pulled his hand back signaling I was alright. I got up tempting to push the door open, it was no use. My heart started to race in a slight panic. I paced by the door thinking of a quick solution. _Alright, we're trapped in an enclosed area without any vents or..._ My thoughts were ruined by another crashing sound, but this time it was good. Heavy had busted the doors open leaving a perfect path for us to escape from. He gently picked up the Medic once more and I guided our way out. We raced down the hall and up the stairs that were left.

"HELP...*cough*... ME!" It sounded like one of the Engineers, the female.

My head shot back trying to search for where the sound came from. I looked at Heavy who had starred at me with intimidating eyes. My expression loosened becoming serious. I pointed toward the hallway and back to myself, I then poked my finger at him and jabbed at the air toward the entrance doors where Scout laid. His eyes glistened from the fire, maybe his eyes were just watery from the smoke. His clothes torn in some places, smears of ash on his face. "Promise you come back?" It looked like he wasn't going to leave until I answered so I said "Yes." For a split second his face looked shocked, probably because it was the first time I'd spoke in front of him. Finally he left and ran toward the doors with the Medic in his arms, still unconscious. There was a moment of silence before I heard the voice again.

"Anyone there... Help.." A faint cry came after. I coughed from all the smoke that had finally entered my lungs, they stung with every inhale I took. Before I was beginning to lose hope on finding Engineer I spotted a yellow glove poking out from underneath the piles of chard wood. My legs were starting to give out, I felt too exhausted to carry on any longer. _COME ON! KEEP GOING, HELP THE ENGINEER OUT AND GET OUT! ITS THAT SIMPLE. GO. GO. GO!_ I forced myself to keep going. Reaching the Engineer, I pushed off the piece of wood that had trapped her. I grabbed onto arm and pulled her out of the slabs of wood, but I was struggling. She was a little heavier than she looked. I used up all my strength left to pull her out of the ashes, when I did another mercenary held onto her arm. _Well that explains why she was heavier than she looked._ "Thanks partner." She started to constantly cough into her glove. "I think we should *cough* head on out of here." Smears of ash also marked her face, clothes, and pants. I nodded stepping out of the way to give them some space. Once I got a better look at the two I saw that Pyro was using her shoulder as a weight. They both walked toward the entrance, I walked behind them feeling the heat creep closer and closer to my back. I helped the two go a little faster toward the door, near the entrance I saw Heavy walking running over to the two and picking them up slinging them over his shoulder. We were so close, I could feel the division of climate change. My front side took in as much of the cool night breeze as possible, as for my back side heat radiated off of it.

" _Kayla..."_ I heard a small voice call out to me. I paused, looking back seeing the monstrous flames finally claim the second floor, going on to the next for its meal. I paused waiting for something to happen again. _"...help...me"_ It was another cry for help, I rushed in but it was impossible. One, Heavy held me in place looking at me as if I was crazy, the place would completely fall apart at any minute. Second, there was no way someone could still be alive with the rate the fire's expanding. Yet, there was something nagging me on. I needed to go in, I had to find the voice. As Heavy let go of my shoulder slowly I made a run for it. He tried to quickly grab me but I was a smidge faster than him. My heart started pumping faster, blood reaching to my head. Everything was getting too hot, my body excreting sweat from all the pores. " _.. over here."_ The voice led me back to the third floor, the fire hadn't badly reached down here. Though, it was getting very VERY close. My head swayed to the left then right hearing for the voice again. _"Almost there."_ It sounded male, an accent that I'd saved before. I made it into the training room seeing the corners of the room start to light a small fire. In one of the corners I saw him, the Spy. He was on the ground, I couldn't get a real clear look at him, partially from being too exposed from the chain of smoke and it was too dark. Some light was emitted from the ghostly flames, it revealed a faint shadow. I walked over beginning to close in on the man, except the man wasn't really a man, it was the silhouette of a plant that looked like a man. I turned around hearing that forewarning sound of the place closing in on itself. I thought that it must have been my imagination and ran back to get out of the base. " _Non, I'm over here..."_ The voice spoke again, but this time a little louder. I looked more toward the weight lifting area and saw another shadow, this time it was real. It moved more toward the light, a shadow of the Spy came out from hiding. He looked badly injured, his face had small cuts on him with dry blood, smudges of a black substance resembling ash, and a deep crimson red splotch of blood that he tried to tame with his soaked leather glove. "... _SPY!..._. _"_ My voice became raspy and quiet, no thanks to the moisture being sucked out of me.

 _GET OUT OF HERE!_ A voice in my head screamed. It was pretty evident the place was falling apart quicker than my conscious could handle, but I couldn't leave him. He was hurt and I wasn't going to let him be left behind. This was an opportunity to redeem myself from my childhood loss. I stumbled toward him feeling the exposure of smoke really get to me. My body was starting to feel lethargic, there was no way I could make it out with Spy alive. _He's already hurt, just save yourself and leave him. You already saved most of your friends just go!_ On the other hand another part of me was thinking, _You made it this far, there's no point in turning back. Quickly get him and get out, it's that simple._ I had made up my mind, I was going to save Spy. Closing in on him a cracking sound came from above. _No...nononon not right now._ I looked at Spy seeing him look up in the same direction as well, then back at me. I felt like he was a helpless puppy. I ran toward him quickly getting a hold of him but the wood gave way. A felt the planks of wood hit my back, a shot of pain growing in the area. I dropped Spy having him fall right beside me. I struggled getting the dead pieces of wood off me. I looked over to the Spy trying to see how he was holding up. I noticed him struggling against the pieces of wood as well. My sight started to fade into darkness. Before I could comprehend what was happening I was pulled out from the piles instantaneously by a stronger force. His arms wrapped around me pulling me farther away from the heaps of wood that crashed down in on me. I squirmed, trying to out from the mans grasp. Big mistake, my vision started to see specks of stars.

"HOLD STILL!" The man yelled.

"PUT ME...*cough cough* DOWN..!" I screamed tears streaming down my face. I noticed the accent from yesterday, deep, calm, and Australian. He gripped me harder with his left arm picking me up and running as fast as he could up the stairs that remained. I struggled in fighting back, mostly due to the lack of energy left. I felt the cool air hit me as we exited the base, just in time; because the building finally had it's last straw and crashed to the ground. Outside on the ground I saw Medic, Heavy, Scout, FemEngineer, Pyro, and now Sniper. He let go of me, I fell to my knees facing the building.

"Spy..." I murmmered to myself finding the will to talk. The Aussie kneeled beside me placing his hand on my back. "There's nothin' ya' could have done to save the bloke." I shoved him off me, but it wasn't forceful enough to do anything at all. "You could have saved him, not me!" Finding my voice again, but it was still raspy and dry. I felt myself crying into my hands, feeling the remaining liquid that was left in my body. I kept crying to myself "...Spy... Spy..." _He could have saved him, instead of me... No, I can't totally blame him its not his fault, its mine. Only if I looked their earlier he would still be alive. Possibly all of them sooner than later. History did repeat itself after all; this time in a different form._

"Kayla..."

I felt the chill of a hand on my shoulder, I didn't bother looking and shoved it off.

"Kayla... wake up.."

I ignored the voice crying even more at my failure.

"KAYLA, madame wake up. You're having a nightmare just open your eyes."

The voice started to shake me startling me to wake up. I finally had the courage to open my eyes. My breathing became easier, the night was actually day, my clothes were fine, there was no smell of smoke, no smoke bleeding into the room, everything... was normal. I sat up from the bed feeling the cool breeze hit my back and forehead sending a chill. I must have sweated intensely. It was only another bad nightmare, everything was fine, nothing really happened. I must have been deep into my thoughts because I still haven't noticed the voice that pulled me out of my fears in the first place.

"Mon amie, everything is alright et was just a nightmare." He said in a mellow french accent.

I looked to my right seeing him at the end of my bed. I slowed down my breathing taking a gulp of air. I lifted up my hand to my forehead wiping the beads of sweat. I rubbed my eyes taking a look at the time. 9:30 _a.m._ It wasn't too late in the morning but it wasn't early either.

"Your results will arrive at any moment today, I wanted to come check on you to see if you were getting ready. I knocked but I didn't 'ear anyzhing, I assumed you were already in zhe showers. Zhen I heard a slight cry so I came to see if you were alright."

He paused and looked at me. "Ça va?"

I was't in the mood for his french words. I looked at him in confusion. "Are you okay? You were crying my name when I came in." he spoke seeming un-phased.

I nodded feeling slightly embarrassed, even though I felt like he knew the real answer. "You aren't the best liar, but I also know that you are in no shape of arguing about it. We're all downstairs in the kitchen when you're ready to join." He stood back up heading toward the door, turning back for his last words. He opened up his mouth ready to say something, but left a small gap of silence trying to think of something to say, ending up coming out with nothing to say at all. He closed his mouth and closed the door behind him.

I fell back on my bed signing heavily. I was mad that I'd talked in my sleep again, but was relived to see that it was Spy. I mean really, just imagine if it was one of the other teammates. It would be an endless bicker about how I can talk, especially if it was the Scout. Good thing I trusted the Spy to keep his mouth shut about it. I suppose it didn't matter anyway, maybe the pressure would give me the chance to speak my own mine. I did in the dream, but then it got me thinking. _If that's what it takes for me to find my voice, how much would I be sacrificing._ It was too much to think about, now wasn't the time. I needed to get ready.

* * *

I walked by way down the stairs to the second floor. Making my way over to the kitchen I could hear some of the mercenaries already making a bet. I held my hear to the door.

"I bet cha' 20 bucks she's a Pyro! Am I right or am I right?"

"HA! You're an idiot. Nah man, she's totally gonna be a... On second thought, yeah I agree." Scouts counterpart complied the same thought.

"MMHM MHMHPMH!" mumbled the Pyro, I couldn't tell if it was a shrill of excitement or gasp in disappointment.

"I bet the lass is gonna be a Sniper..." The Demoman slurred, right behind his comment I could hear the two twins clank bottles. She must have agreed with him.

"Oi don't know mate. She doesn't fit the characteristics of a Snoiper in my opinion." I was hurt a little by his words, I didn't know I had to look a certain way in order to fit into the position.

"Oh please, and what characteristics would that be? The capability to sit around pissing in jars, while hiding inside of building isolated from the real fight. I do suppose you're right bushman. She certainly doesn't possess those qualities."

"Piss off, ya' bloody spook." Sniper lashed. Although I couldn't see I could feel the grin spread across Spy's face.

"OHHHHH! How does it feel ta' get burned, and not by a pyro!" yelled the Scout.

I took the opportunity to walk into the room, all attention was on me. I wanted to say to them _What? Dont look at me like you've never seen me before._ But obviously that wasn't going to happen. I walked over to the crowd sitting down in one of the chairs by the table.

"Speakin' of the devil. There she is."

They all began gathering around sitting down in the chairs as well. "You must be excited to see which class your gonna be in. I remember I was, of course I had a strong feelin' Engineering would be my profession." FemEngineer looked at her twin smiling warmly. He grabbed her shoulder shaking it a bit, almost brotherly like. Before anyone else could speak a vehicle's engine could be heard. The sound roared closer to the base, finally cutting off with silence. A car door slammed shut, steps echoed into the base. Miss Pauling entered the room pointing her finger at me without saying a word, she gestured her finger for me to come to her. I felt like a kid that got called to the principle office, it was quite embarrassing. In the corner of my eye I could see some of the mercs give each other glances. I exited to room facing Miss Pauling. She had a bright smile on her face, _good it must be great news._ A white piece of paper was presented to me.

"These are your results, I tallied them last night and put them under one document, then transmitted the data into the computer. It calculated everything and chose your class for you. I think you might like the results."

I looked down at the white document scanning through the words. Most of it was just a record of who I was; including my first name, middle, and last, my date of birth, eye color, and more detailed information. My eyes guided toward the middle where all the results of the classes were scored. Toward the end was the class chosen for me. I read it.

 _Congratulations Kayla,_

 _Your data has been analyzed and scanned through our trusty computer. It's great to welcome a_

 _new recruit on the team of RED. Thanks to the company you will be provided a great home, and_

 _accessory of money. You were chosen to fit the team, you are now a certified mercenary._

 _Welcome to the team ..._

 _-Mann Co._

I looked down at the paper starring at it, I didnt how to feel. Good or bad, perhaps both. Glad that I wasn't chosen as a Pyro, not that I had a chance anyways, but scared for the work I'm going to have to train for up ahead. I honestly didn't think this class fit, shows what I know about myself. I looked back up at Miss Pauling seeing her cheeky smile, I could tell she was waiting for a reaction. I gave her what she wanted, she worked hard I didn't want that to go to waste.

"YAY! I knew you would love it... Ahem, I'm glad that you like it because you're stuck with it for the rest of your contract. Anyways you will begin you first war tomorrow, good luck!"

She left walking toward the exit and into the car. I giggled at her personality, she had the mind of a child deep inside. I turned to the door, _Now to tell the team... How, I can't really talk... Right._ Entering back into the room a few of the mercenaries were already by the door, probably listening in on the private conversation we were having. They backed up slowly waiting for me to give the details.

"Well what did ya' get." Scout said tapping his foot impatiently.

I looked back down at the paper and had an idea. I looked up searching my eyes for the man who I'd forever be partnered up with, and pointed to him. They all looked at the mercenary, each presenting a different reaction.

"You gotta be kidding me..."

"HA! YOU'RE SUCH A FAILURE YOU IDIOT!" Shouted the FemScout

"PFFT! Says the one who agreed with me." Scout gave a evil smirk at the quick comeback, in return Feminine Scout crossed her arms looking to the side.

"Well I'll be damned." said both of the country lovers.

"Vell zhen, and to zhink zhat you vould become such a great assistant." Medic shrugged in disappointment.

Both of the heavies stayed silent also watching everyones react. The FemDemo nudged at the passed out drunk, he awoke confused. "AYE! WOT JUST HAPPENED?"

"Ya' lost the bet, that's what 'appened." spoke the Scout.

"...Aw ya' got ta' be pullin' me' leg laddy..."

He rolled his eyes at the drunk. "Bloody spooks..." Sniper muttered under his breath, sipping his leftover coffee.

"Bienvenue to the team, mon amie." The french man gave a welcoming smile, but deeper inside it turned into a smirk. The moment of celebration ended as everyone gave their compliments as they left the room. The two Heavies hugged me at the same time-I felt like a sandwich, both the Scouts shook hands with me before leaving, Medic raised his glasses further up his nose before finally congratulating me for making it on the team, both the Demos gather around me leaning on my shoulders-I could smell the alcohol off their breath.

"WELCOME TO THE TEAM MAGGOT!" Soldier saluted at me before heading out of the room.

"SEE YOU OUT ON THE BATTLE FIELD PRIVATE!" FemSoldier did the same thing, saluting me with respect before stomping out of the room.

I made a crooked smile at the both of them. Another man came toward me with his arms held out forcing me into a hug. My feet lifted slightly off the ground. My body tensed slightly panicking, but I hid it. "NMCE THM HMPH MPU MPH MHE MMPHM!" I made out some of the words coming from the Pyro's mouth. He smelled of gasoline and smoke, _Did he know that he smelled like this?_ I gave him a quick fake smile and he placed me down.

"Alrighty Pryo give the girl some space, will ya'." The Engineer chuckled placing his hand on the fire child's shoulder. He backed off slightly giving a little whimper. "Nice to see you as one of the Support teams, I'll see ya' out on the field ya' hear." I gave a thumbs up to the three mercenaries, thanking them for the acceptance. I turned around facing two more mercenaries, Sniper and Spy.

Sniper took another sip from his coffee. "Noice to see ya' finally on the team. Oi'll see ya' later, out on the battlefield oi mean." He looked at my partner, "Train the sheila well, for the sake of your reputation." then back at me with his blue crystal eyes. He took a last sip from his coffee before putting it in the sink to rinse off.

"Leave that to me, I believe she will be a great Spy."

"Oh... Oi wasn't talkin' to ya' mate, I meant the other sheila." I couldn't help but giggle at what he'd said. Sniper walked off smiling at my laugh and the expression on Spy's face. I didn't know if the two always had this hate/love friendship together, but I found it comical. I looked back at Spy seeing him glare unamused, but all it did was make me innocently smile even more.

"I think we both had enough celebratory actions for the morning, we will start basic training this afternoon. A plus tard, mon petite." The RED Spy calmly walked toward the doors pulling a cigarette from his-I believe it's called-disguise kit. Once I was alone I did a small victory jump, I didn't know what got over me. I was filled with excitement; I got accepted onto the team, I was claimed to be the Spy-although I didn't really see it but I'm not complaining. I looked back down at the paper folding it in half and stuck it in my pocket. A smile remained permanently on my face for the rest of the morning. I remember about the new uniform and headed up to my dorm room. As I was walking I thought about how good it felt to be on a team. Never in a million years would I have seen myself in a base fighting for a change. I reached my room, inside I instantly went to my bed. I took a look at the new uniform, somewhat similar to the one from the training process except RED, of course. The under armour of the long sleeve shirt was a solid black with red outlines that emphasized down the arms, around the shoulders and neck area, down the sides of my torso. Over top of it would be a crimson red vest that fit perfectly with the red dress pants that matched with it. It wasn't something that I would personally wear, apart from the under armour, but it was a uniform. Beside the clothes were the shoes, they were comfortable red wrapped boot loafers. They resembled the looks of some badass ninja shoes, yet elegant like. Lastly, the all famous mask. It was a Red balaclava with a large cut for the mouth.

I changed into the clothes and looked into the body mirror that was beside the nightstand. _I look so awesome... I look like a legit Spy._ The clothes fitted perfectly on my body, it made me look more mature. My hair was left down, I stuffed my long thick brown hair into the mask. Most of it was hidden, besides some of the smaller strands that decided to peak from the top of my head. They fell down the front of my face reaching to the length of my eyebrows, similar to the Medic. I felt so confident and empowered after I put on the uniform. I looked back toward the bed and didn't see any of the weapons. _Probably have to get them from Spy during training, makes sense._

* * *

 ** _To be continued..._**

 **I just want to thank all the people who are reading this story, It's great to hear what you guys think of it. It really gives me a good perspective on what you are waiting for, what you find interesting, and what you like about it. Makes me feel happy looking at you're reviews. LOVE YOU! I cannot thank you enough, see you fellow viewers in the next chapter.**


	8. Chapter 8: Battle Time

**Previous:**

I changed into the clothes and looked into the body mirror that was beside the nightstand. _I look so awesome... I look like a legit Spy._ The clothes fitted perfectly on my body, it made me look more mature. My hair was left down, I stuffed my long thick brown hair into the mask. Most of it was hidden, besides some of the smaller strands that decided to peak from the top of my head. They fell down the front of my face reaching to the length of my eyebrows, similar to the Medic. I felt so confident and empowered after I put on the uniform. I looked back toward the bed and didn't see any of the weapons. _Probably have to get them from Spy during training, makes sense._

* * *

 **Continuation:**

 **~{:Chapter 8- Battle time:}~**

Shuffling my way through the hall, I made my way downstairs to the training gym. My hand pushed the door open-it resembled to one of a hospital door-easy access. I looked around expecting to see a slim man be in the middle of the room, but no he wasn't there. At all. I figured he must have forgot, or was running late. Wait, seriously? No, that is the most crazy made-up thing I've ever thought. A Spy, late? Really, no he was hiding. I turned around just in time to see him materialize right in front of me. I stepped back to hold some distance between us. He held his hands politely behind his back and paced around me, like I was his prey. I stood still and kept my eyes forward.

"Hm...I was really hoping to scare you, _ma chérie._ " He stopped pacing and faced in front of me. He shrugged and got closer; about 2-3 feet away. "Hit me." I stumbled on his words. _Hit him? How does this have to do wi-._ Without a slight hesitation his arm swung back and came forward with force. My heart raced and I tilted my head to the right and quickly grabbed his wrist from reaching any closer to my face. In defense, Spy took his free hand and grabbed my neck. As a result I made my right hand grab his left preventing him to hold my neck any tighter, he came closer to me hitting the back of my shin with his foot causing me to fall. His body hovered over mine, knees bent down by my sides, his right hand on my left, and the other around my neck. His facial expression changed, from serious gentlemen-like to animalistic killer. I stared in fear, I couldn't move. _Move, do something! He's going to kill you!_ Words that kept repeating and repeating in my head, but nothing happened. A thousand years must have past by, it seemed so long before he finally got off me and tried to unwrinkle his suit. I stayed on the ground trying to figure out what just happened. He stood over me and gave me a hand up. I didn't even look at him, I looked down at the ground trying to just figure out what got over me.

"You're too tense, you need to relax. I could 'ave killed you right then and zhere. Zhe BLU Spy could 'ave killed without a second thought. Those types of actions won't be of use on zhe battlefield." He sighed, looking at his watch. "We 'ave an hour or two before our battle begins. I'm afraid we won't 'ave enough time so I'm just going to show zhe basics."

I nodded still distracted from our previous roulette. He made his way over to the table in the corner of the room, I followed. When I made my way over he turned around looking at me, my eyes trained down seeing a rag in his hands. Something was underneath creating a huge clump. His fingers delicately unraveled the cloth revealing what I was dying to see. A beautiful butterfly knife, a gun, disguise kit, watch, and sapper. I couldn't help but grin at the sight of it; he place them back on the table and gave me a description of each one. First off was the knife, his hands guided over the weapon and picked it up. He flipped it open, so swiftly, professionally, strictly.

" 'Ere is your knife, this will be your primary weapon. It's going to be your lifeline, your person. Your balisong iz you, if you give any second thought so will it. If your person makes the wrong move so will you. If you're smooth, calm, quick, clean, so iz your weapon."

I stared at the him and the weapon in fascination. They way he described it, being another person, my person. It intrigued me for what else he had to say.

"Zhis will be you're back up, your secondary weapon." He held up the gun analyzing it's structure. "Zhis iz your ambassador, whenever you get into a bad situation use it. Zhis will represent your accuracy, similar to zhe balisong you need to stay calm, collected, smooth. One mistake can cost you your life." He sounded serious on the last sentence which made me somewhat intimidated by the whole concept. I nodded my head emotionless trying to calm myself down from all the new information I was getting.

He placed down the weapon grabbing the next one. It's structure was different. It looked like a small metal case, one that looked like a wallet.

"Zhis is called a disguise kit, et will disguise you as any of the opposing teammates. For instance." He popped open the kit punching in some random pattern and shape shifted into an opposing teammate. "Now dis is gonna be your identity out on da battlefield. Ya' don't necessarily HAVE to use it but it's good once in a' while." His voice sounded similar to the Bostonian. "Oh and uh, ya' gotta try to imitate their voices and personalities, otherwise ya' just gonna die and look like an idiot." Yup, definitely Scout. He materialized out of the disguise and continued. "Zhe disguise will be your lies, misconception. Determine how persuasive you are." I could tell he purred a little at the last part. His voice seemed to change in tone, pitch, EVERYTHING! Not only that but his facial expression seemed seductive, or in this case, persuasive. I continued to look unphased and watched him pick up the next object.

"Zhis is going to be your cloak, or rather your stealth. You'll become invisible to your enemies and disappear in a plume of smoke. You'll be a cat in the night, agile, delicate and sly." His eyes lite up, passion in his voice was inspirational. He seemed so proud and excited to be telling me what it took to be a Spy; what it meant to be a Spy. "You won't be able to be seen by other enemies for a specific amount of seconds. In other words 'ave a plan before using it directly. Your skills in problem solving will come in handy when using zhis device. Lastly, we 'ave zhe sapper." The device looked like the disguise kit except bigger and obviously for a different use. He explained it's purpose of use(symbolically). He gave a quick tutorial on how to use them and then checked his watch.

"Well we are out of time, we 'ave to get going." He walked past me and I gathered all my new things, putting my watch on, placing my knife and disguise kit in my back pockets, putting the gun between the straps on my thigh, and holding the sapper. I followed him out the door and into the respawn where everyone was preparing. He showed me where I would put all of my things after the battle ended. _Wow my very own cubby hole, sweet_. I smiled a bit and observed the other cubby holes. The very first one had, what looked like, the Pyros things. An extra mask on the side of the wooden supply carrier, a neatly hung fireproof suit, and a red floral handbag? _Moving on._ The second spot held Spy's perfectly unwrinkled suit jacket and polished shoes, hanging next to his were Soldiers patriotic jacket, and above in the small shelf was a supply of war helmets. _Why he has so many of them... beats me._ Next in the three small shelves were Engineers orange-yellow hard hat, Snipers hat, and the next shelf over were Medic's supplies; including a band-aid kit and stethoscope. Beneath the mercenaries hats and supplies was Scout's head piece. _He mostly likely wanted that spot all to himself._ In the third section of the cubby hold held Demomans demolition vest, Heavies sling of bullets, and his shoes. An interesting bunch really. Same applied to the ladies side. Everything was exactly the same, except for the sizes and style. I didn't really have anything in my section yet, due to the fact that I'm new and I had no idea what I was doing. Anyways, I heard the announcements come on reminding us the battle was going to start in 10 minutes. As short of a time as that seemed, it felt like an hour that seemed to last forever. It was because I was nervous, I felt like it was the first day of school. You feel nervous, anxious about doing something wrong. You wonder if you'll fit in, you don't want to screw anything up. That's exactly how I felt, I didn't know what to expect from this war, let alone how it even played out. I've been hearing a few things here or there about how it went down, but hearing something is completely different from experiencing it on your own. I sat on the wooden bench thinking about everything, strategies, components, backups, backups to those backups, the whole game plan. Spy must have saw me concentrating too hard because I felt a gentle touch on my shoulder and looked up seeing him.

"Your nervous, I can tell."

I looked up at him rubbing my arms for security. _Was it that obvious?_

"I'm afraid so" he looked away from me and toward the wall staring at it before continuing, I looked at him shocked. _Great, now he can read minds all of the sudden! What can he not do._ "Zhe way you stare out to space, your facial expressions change when you think too hard. You were tapping your right foot rapidly indicating you are either impatient or nervous, but zhen again being impatient could also mean you're nervous. Not to mention zhat you were carelessly picking at the skin of your fingers to zhe point they're starting to bleed." He paused and looked at me. I looked down at my hands seeing that the side of my thumb was starting to bleed. I immediately stopped and sucked on my finger using the saliva to wash away the blood. I sighed giving into his guess.

"Don't worry, things will be complicated no doubt-you will soon find out-in zhe end you'll start to get use to everything and zhen it will be a breeze."

"Mission begins in 5 minutes." said the Announcer

I looked at the speaker and back to Spy giving him a fake smile, although he could probably tell. He wavered off and got ready for battle. _He's right, you need to calm down. You're a Spy after all._ I never fully understood how Spy did, or any of the mercenaries at that, what they did. I pondered in my mind what their first reaction was when they were in my position. I mean, they were brought here like me right?

"Mission begins in 5..."

My heart thumped instantaneously at the words. _Wait?! Already?_

"4..."

I second checked my things and got ready for battle, or well tried.

"3..."

This was it, I'm going into battle.

"2..."

I took a deep breath.

"1..."

Just like that the gates opened and everyone yelled punch lines, scrambling onto the battlefield. I, of course, was the last to go out onto the battlefield with the rest. I looked at my watch pressing the button and cloaked. I quickly used it to my advantage and ran out of respawn heading out into the action. Already I was overwhelmed by the amount of people, enemies, teammates. They were all dispersed everywhere. I witnessed them be shot, burned, exploded in front of me. _Now I know why they gave me all those psychological questions and tests. Anyone watching this could go crazy and panic within a heartbeat._ I managed to stay calm and work my way around over to the enemies base, and trust me when I say it was NOT I repeat NOT EASY! I swear I almost got burned alive by that demonic creature they dare call The Pyro! I've never felt so alive, nor scared in my life. My cloak failed to keep me materialized at least twice now. For some reason I kept forgetting that I was limited to invisibility. In those two times, I was lucky a trusty teammate was nearby, killing the enemy Pyro each time. I made it up into a tall tower looking for safety while I had the last few remaining seconds on my cloaking device.

Big mistake.

When I went up into the tower I saw one of the Snipers, his blue shirt clearly identifying himself. He looked out into the distance picking off my team one by one, like little ants. They were the ants, he was the one holding the magnifying glass. The Blu Sniper seemed to be too concentrated on his aim he didn't even sense that I was there. Then again, I was quiet getting up here so he probably didn't even notice. I took this precious moment and sneaked my way over behind him. It was quite amusing watching him mutter to himself every time he got a head shot. Did our Sniper do this as well? Something I will definitely have to look out for. My feet couldn't have been quieter. I was close enough where I could have stole his hat and made a run for it. I flipped out my knife, but it made a clanking noise a little louder than I had expected. My cloak materialized behind him and he turned around sharply standing up with his Kukri, automatically in his hand. I could only gasp in shock as his length towered before me. I forgot how tall he was compared to me, I guess the requirements were very specific when it came to characteristics. We stood in front of each other, screams and taunt sounds in the background. My mind jumbled into a hot mess, I wasn't even sure if I had time to comprehend. My first thought _Fight or Flight_. I could stand my ground and try to fight the slim lanky man, or I could make a run for it and try again another time. Fortunately my option was chosen for me, run. He came lunging toward me with his ridiculously large sharp knife. In desperation to stay alive I swung to the side and ran toward the exit but was pulled away landing on the hard ground. The man towered over me pointing the sharp end of the knife close to my throat. I stood still both in fear and shock.

"Where do ya' think your going?" An evil grin rose to the BLU Snipers face.

He started mumbling these other words but I ignored them looking around seeing my surroundings. The exit was just to my right-possibly 2 feet away, just behind him was a crate just a few feet from the wall. I looked at the position I was in, perfect. I gave him a smirk and rolled to my side getting away from the threatening object before quickly lifting up two of my feet and pushing them toward his stomach, similar to that of a kangaroo except... on the ground. He stumbled backward and tripped over the crate tumbling to the ground and hitting his head on the wall. He gave out a cry of pain and I took the chance to make a run for it. I made a few steps toward the exit and made my way to freedom, supposedly. I looked down seeing my cloaking device was all charged up and immediately used it. I disappeared from his sights hearing him swear out loud.

I went to one of the corners of the BLU base checking to see if I was clear before decloaking. I took a few breathes recollecting myself. _Calm... I need to stay calm..._ How did Spy do all this stuff, I mean I know he has years of practice but who could get use to this. Ever. I took a deep breath and got my head back in the game. A shred of confidence came over me. I remembered that Spy talked about the disguise kit, so I decided, why not try it out. I was pretty good with impressions, once I got to know everyone better. I looked through all the combinations and decided it would be best to change into a Pyro. After all you wouldn't have to do much talking, just mumbling.

My form changed along with the appearance of the color BLU instead of RED. My figure fitted like that of a Pyro. I looked around seeing no one and walked over to the Engineer that apparently was in the corner fixing his teleporter.

"Hey Pyro, What are ya' doing over here? Shouldn't ya' be helpin' push the cart little fella?" The man stopped what he was doing and looked into the eyes of the gas mask. My heart started to pound with nervousness. _What should I say, what should I do?_ The only thing I could do.

"MHm...MHPHMFGHM?!"

"Uh... You alright there buddy? Sounds like your comin' down with somethin'." His back straightened and tossed his wrench on his shoulder, placing his right hand on his hip. I only nod and give a thumps up. He chuckled and asked me to do something for him real quick.

"Well since you're here, mind helping me set up the teleporter for a sec?"

I nod once again and go in front of him bending down toward the teleporter. As I was going to look up waiting for another command I felt something hard hit me on the head. The pain throbbed like a terrible headache. I fell to the ground, my disguise wore off revealing my true self. My head turned toward the laughing engineer. I winced at the pain that throbbed within me and look in confusion.

"I'm guessin' you're the new recruit Spa' was suppose to get. Word of advice, make sure you know who you're foolin' before ya' go and do whatever you tried ta' do." I looked away in shame and heard the hammer of his gun cock. I closed my eyes and felt my headache go away. A new pain appeared in my chest feeling like someone was tearing my insides out. It wasn't long before I blacked out and saw the light to the respawn. I gasped loudly breathing heavily, I felt like a huge weight was on my chest. It kept constricting every time I breathed. I held my chest and bent over trying to catch a breath, some of the mercenaries would pass by giving a small glimpse of sympathy. It must have been the same reaction they've seen on all the new recruits, perhaps a memory of when they first stated the job. I stood back up and calmed my breathing. _I guess working here you have to get use to the feeling._

I stood back up, tightened my grip on my serpents resolve, and had a passion of determination.

I went out through the gates immediately hearing the shrieks of my enemies and teammates. I ignored the shouts and cries and focused on my objective. I was going to take it slow and add from there. My first objective, getting a backstab. I cloaked remembering the limited amount of time and hid in on of the corners behind enemy lines. I sneakingly stole some of the BLU Engie's supplies to resupply my own, earning myself some more time to stay cloaked. I reached one of their checkpoint buildings and hid waiting patiently. I waited a few minutes before I saw a BLU Medic come across the walkway, PERFECT! I saw that his health was already low, so why not take the opportunity to finish the job. I narrowed in on my prey and watch his every move carefully. I got behind him uncloaked and made my move. My left hand covered his mouth as the knife punctured his back, no mercy, no hesitation. It was quick and smooth. Not bad for my first time, might I just say. I noticed I caught him by surprised as his body stiffened at the sudden action and then everything went limp. The knife acted like a key, it fit perfectly into the crease of his back. Man did it feel sweet to have satisfaction of the balisong plunge into something so pure. It felt like I'd been waiting ages for that one thing to happen, and let me say. It was entirely worth it. I felt his struggling lessen as his body had finally gave out. Soon I let go hearing the thump that signified he'd fell to the floor. I breathed in slowly closing my eyes to calm down the adrenaline.

"I assume zhis is your first time killing."

I instantly looked behind me seeing the enemy Spy come out from the shadows. His cigarette light burning into the air leaving smoke behind. My eyes widened as I steadied by grip on the knife. He walked toward me, unphased or fearful for what I should have done. His gaze looked up and down at me. I felt his emotionless grayish-blue eyes judge my every move, every breath and confidence-which was slowly diminishing.

"Lucky for you zhat was our new Medic. He doesn't pose much of a threat, in fact I don't think he's survived within 10 seconds of zhis putrid war." He gave a disgusted face and flicked his cigarette to the floor, my eyes followed it as he stomped out its life. My eyes trailed up toward him as he came close, too close. I practically felt his breath on my face. "Madame, why are you here?"

A reasonable question, just strange. Why was the enemy wasting time with me, why was I wasting time with the enemy. He asking me this question. I could kill him right now right here, he COULD kill me, but I didn't. He didn't, yet. I listened, why is beyond me. I crossed my arms looking him up and down not answering. I wasn't falling for his tricks, what game was he playing at.

"The bomb has almost reached the final terminus! HAHAHA!" I heard the administrator laugh off the intercom and turned my attention back to the Spy.

"What a shame for you ma petite, I believe I will be seeing you fairly soon. Zhis conversation shall continue soon enough, Au revoir!"

 _Wait.. Au revoi-._ How stupid could I have been, ignorant, oblivious, UH! I knew I should've done something, why did I bother listening! A sharp blade came swinging down my back. How could I have been so distracted, the scene played over and over again. The shiny blade hitting at the perfect angle, the perfect style. My cries dying out with my last gasp of fresh air. He was swift and intelligent at the right precision. What was wrong with me, I had an objective and succeeded but was distracted by a professional manipulator. I should have seen it coming, whatever. It's a failure that can be learned upon. **Don't trust anyone. No distractions. No failures.**

* * *

We lost.

That's all.

We lost, terribly. I respawned after the humiliation round was over, I didn't understand the concept of it. All it adds is more anger and stress to the situation, but perhaps that's what they were going for. The respawn room seemed to be a little bit darker than usual. It probably had to do with the fact that we lost, everyone's mood was negative. I didn't feel anything though, I didn't feel happy nor sad. I didn't feel... anything. I just observed as time seemed to go in slow motion, everything seemed to last longer. I saw both the Medic and Heavies leave the room in silence. The Soldiers argued over each others battle flaws. Scout tried to calm down the FemScout, I could see rage furry within her. Sniper walked off at some point, I didn't quite see him leave though. Both the Engineers compromised with each other and tried to calm down the Soldiers. My eyes looked around the room seeing the Demos drunk as usual, although they seemed to be aware of what happened and didn't speak for the night. Pyro sat on the other side of the same bench as me, staying quiet and out of the problematic drama. I saw about everyone Scout, Soldier, Pyro, Engie, Heavy, Demo, Sniper, Medic, all who was left was Spy. He must have slipped away as well, just like the Sniper. The mercenaries left one by one out of respawn; all with frowns on their faces.

I felt kind of guilty I hadn't done much for the team. Yeah I got a backstab, but the guy was a newbie just like me. They couldn't have expected to much from me, although I could have made a better effort at it.

Surely no one got any good sleep for the night. It should have been confirmed when barely anyone came down for dinner, I nodded at Pyro thanking him for the meal. Once some of the mercenaries finished with their meal we did our routine washing the dishes afterwards. The rest of the mercs left to sleep in their room or drink themselves out of their misery. I decided to take a small walk outside. I walked out of the base and to somewhere isolated but in short distance so I wouldn't get lost. I needed somewhere quiet to think, but as quiet as the base seemed today I wanted to feel alone. As contradicting as that may sound, yes I wanted to be surrounded by family, but for another reason I felt like we were all distant. I found myself walking over to a huge canyon that held a breathtaking sight. It's magnificent view of the horizon line. The stars seemed to sparkle ten times brighter than all the places I've been too. I rested my body upon the cool ground and placed my hands behind my head and gave out a heavy sigh feeling contempt. My gaze reached the stars as my thoughts exploded asking questions and answering them the best I could with my logical self. I reviewed over my day.

The battle seemed to have more meaning than I had expected. It seemed to lose it's pattern, everything was out of place and unexpected. Does that make it predictable? Every living human-being that was chosen for the job all have different personalities but all the same characteristics. It made me think about the people who had the same titles as me. What they had to go through and what process they went through trying to get to where I am now. Everything came with practice, blood, guts, and glory. Come to think of it, how long did they say I had to be here? How could I have forgotten already? _I wish my parents were here, my little sister. She would know what to say, she always knew what to say._ I slightly laughed at the thought a tear streaming down my face. _She always knew how to make me laugh at times like this. She always listened to my thoughts. That's definitely something I'll miss._

"Beautiful night, non?"

I jumped at the sudden sound almost having a heart attack.

"Calm down ma chérie it's just moi."

 _Are you kidding me! No one just does that! I COULD HAVE HAD A HEART ATTACK!_ It took me a little before my heart really came down it's normal rate. I glared at him angered, but only managed to receive a petty chuckle.

"Congratulations on your first backstab. Must be exciting for you." He sat next to me looking up at the stars as well.

I stayed silent, although it was very nice.

"How did you think, being your first time in battle after all." His voice sounded so smooth, it almost put me to sleep. I didn't know how to respond, do I say yes? Do I tell him what happened with the enemy Spy... What do I do.

He waited patiently for a few, but then the atmosphere got rather awkward. "I see you are still choosing not to speak, et's fine I suppose I will try again another day." He got up ready to leave me.

My heart sank at the thought. I didn't want him to leave just yet, I needed someone to talk too. I mean, he's already heard my voice in my sleep so theirs nothing to be ashamed about. I also have an excuse if it all backfires anyways, I saved him. A professional killer saved by a homeless teenager. Besides, I wanted to know a little bit more about him. His mind was intriguing to me, I needed to know more. I had his odd feeling something about him seemed distracted.

 _Say something, he's walking away... COME ON!_

"...Wa...W-Wait..." The words came out mumbled and quiet, though the wind seemed to carry it farther than expected. He stopped and turned around, I instantly waited for an expression. He didn't look shocked but he seemed relaxed. He positioned himself back in his spot, looking back up at the stars grinning with that smug face of his.

* * *

 _ **To be continued...**_

 **YAY! HEY GUYS! Sorry it's been a while, schools been distracting and all that. So I dedicated this week to type, edit, and review this chapter. Hopefully I corrected most of the spelling errors and made meaningful sentences. Anyhow, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! UNTIL NEXT TIME! Also if I don't post a chapter anytime next week or some time during Christmas Break, MERRY CHRISTMAS, HAPPY HANUKA, KWANZAA, ETC!**


	9. Chapter 9: A break

**Previously:**

"Beautiful night, non?"

I jumped at the sudden sound almost having a heart attack.

"Calm down ma chérie it's just moi."

 _Are you kidding me! No one just does that! I COULD HAVE HAD A HEART ATTACK!_ It took me a little before my heart really came down it's normal rate. I glared at him angered, but only managed to receive a petty chuckle.

"Congratulations on your first backstab. Must be exciting for you." He sat next to me looking up at the stars as well.

I stayed silent, although it was very nice.

"How did you think, being your first time in battle after all." His voice sounded so smooth, it almost put me to sleep. I didn't know how to respond, do I say yes? Do I tell him what happened with the enemy Spy... What do I do.

He waited patiently for a few, but then the atmosphere got rather awkward. "I see you are still choosing not to speak, et's fine I suppose I will try again another day." He got up ready to leave me.

My heart sank at the thought. I didn't want him to leave just yet, I needed someone to talk too. I mean, he's already heard my voice in my sleep so theirs nothing to be ashamed about. I also have an excuse if it all backfires anyways, I saved him. A professional killer saved by a homeless teenager. Besides, I wanted to know a little bit more about him. His mind was intriguing to me, I needed to know more. I had his odd feeling something about him seemed distracted.

 _Say something, he's walking away... COME ON!_

"...Wa...W-Wait..." The words came out mumbled and quiet, though the wind seemed to carry it farther than expected. He stopped and turned around, I instantly waited for an expression. He didn't look shocked but he seemed relaxed. He positioned himself back in his spot, looking back up at the stars grinning with that smug face of his.

* * *

 **Continuation:**

 **~{:Chapter 9-A break:}~**

"I guess I underestimated you. You do speak." He chuckled keeping his gaze toward the sky.

"Yeah..." That was it... just a 'yeah'... Talk about be an awkward conversationalist. I laid down staring at the star invested night, I bit my lip thinking too hard.

"Forgive me, perhaps I was being too pushy. I was just curious is all."

"It's okay. You're fine. I, uh, just haven't really spoke in a few years. Since..."

"Oui, since the incident with your family. I know mon ami, you don't have to say anymore if you don't want too." His head turned to looked at me, eyes sparkling back to me. I kept my head straight not bothering to look at him. "Thanks."

We spent most of our time in silence. I could feel his eyes observing me, but I ignored it. I knew he was trying to figure me out and everything. It did spark an interest in me, why was he out here? "Y-you mind if I ask you a question..." My heart raced, anxiety spreading throughout me worried for what he would think of the question.

He shrugged. "I don't see the harm in doing so." His tone of voice so casual.

"Why..." I gave thought to what I wanted to ask. "Don't take this the wrong way, but, why did you come out here to speak to me?"

I looked toward him, his focus still concentrating on the stars. "Since you are a new member to the team, I believe I should get an idea of who I'm working with." Spy's gaze shifted over to me and I nodded acknowledging him. "Okay."

I heard his body shuffle to his left side, his arm on the ground and the palm of his hand supporting his head. "My turn." I looked at him in question.

"You asked me a question, it's only fair to answer one of mine." A smirk grew on his face. I narrowed my eyes, what kind of game was he playing. "Fine."

"Do you remember zhe day, back in zhe alleyway where I got myself in a bit of a quarrel?"

"Um... Yeah?" I nodded back at him.

"Why did you take zhe risk to rescue a stranger like me?"

I did give thought to his question, but he already knew he was exceeding his limits. I laughed out a small giggle. "Nice try, that's two questions. Maybe next time I'll answer."

My reply must have amused him because when I looked to see his reaction he just smiled. "You're also more clever zhan I thought." I couldn't help but grin. He let out a heavy sigh and sat up to look at his watch. "As much as I would love to continue zhis conversation, I do have things to get done before morning. Goodnight, mon petite." I watched him get up to leave. I stayed a little bit longer before leaving to get some rest. Entering into the base I made my way through the halls seeing them quiet and empty. Making my way up the stairs, I glanced at the calendar pinned to the wooden wall by all the dorm rooms. 'Friday' I smiled seeing the week swing by pretty fast thanks to the trials and tests. Even though I had my first battle today, I couldn't help but wait for the weekend. That way, I could hang out with the team more and get a better look at them all. The one thing I definitely remembered seeing in the contract were the temporary breaks we got. Similar to school, they worked the rest of the week and then took days off on the weekend. It was a mandatory kind of thing, to keep the mercenaries from going completely insane. I opened to door knob to my room and entered feeling lethargic. I changed into my pajamas, took off my mask and shoes. My bed felt cold and abandoned, so I gave it my attention. Huddling under the covers, I made myself a little nest keeping as much warmth as possible. Not far behind I felt my eyes getting heavy and fell asleep, leaving my experience in battle behind.

Surprisingly, not too many dreams happened that night. Everything was pretty much smooth sailing. As soon as the next morning came the first thing I noticed was the smell, the bases scent seemed off. It didn't smell like it's usual artificial wood smell. It was overpowered by a more, pleasant smell. More of a warming, toasty, and sweet kind of smell. My nose went hay-wire picking up all the delicious fumes that intrigued my curiosity. I forced myself out of bed, not paying attention to the time, but by telling from the shadows in the room it was close to 6:30a.m. My naked feet shuffled over to a section of the room to bend down and grab my mask. I forced it over my head and shifted all the thin hairs behind the cloth. Although, some strands decided to rebel against me. I took my time making my way down the stairs toward the kitchen. My hand covered my mouth, for a yawn that crept upon me. I slid to the kitchen door room and pressed the door open. I rubbed my blurred eyes to get a clearer picture of the scene. At the table sat Medic, the masculine Heavy, and male Scout. In the kitchen were both the male Pyro and Engineer. I saw all of their gazes shifting to mine and I waved them good morning. The Medic bowed his head, the Scout said his usual 'morning toots', as for Heavy he spoke in his deep Russian accent.

"Good Morning, Leetle girl." Not a second too soon the Engineer said his part. "Mornin' there partner, didn't think you'd wake up so early. I though you'd sleep in." His eyes periodically shifted from the bacon to me as he spoke. I shook my head and wavered my hand in a 'it's not a big deal' motion. I moved closer to the kitchen to get a better look at what was going on. Pyro was toasting the bread and getting out the butter. Engineer, of course, was cooking the bacon and eggs. I looked around the room trying to figure out where all the others were. As if Engineer read the expressions on my face perfectly, he replied back "Don't expect to see some of them today." I looked at him in question, seeing his eyes meet mine. "Well, most of the ladies go out for a ladies night." I stopped listening to turn around looking at the outside window, I looked back at him and pointed behind me with my thumb. He chuckled before continuing to speak. "Yeah, they don't let the time of day keep them waiting." I only nodded my head. "As for the rest of us, some of us sleep in, relax, finish up some work, and..." he shrugged his shoulder ending the conversation there. The sizzling of the food stopped as he placed the remains onto a plate. My mouth seemed to water at the sight of the crispy brown glazed bacon, and steamy cooked eggs. Pyro grabbed the slices of toast he made for the mercs that were currently present, he placed them on the table. Immediately I saw the Scout dive in grabbing a piece of toast, but he jolted his hand back feeling the Medic slap it.

"Patients! You von't digest your food correctly if you eat so fast. Vait until everyone comes to the table and settles down." Medic's eyes narrowing at the hungry rabbit.

"Ugghhh... FINE!" He crossed his arms and looked the opposite direction from the doctor. I walked to an empty chair and sat down examining all the delicious wonders on the table. A plate was passed down to me, we all waited until everyone got a plate. I could tell Scout wanted to eat now, his leg was shaking up and down. He glanced at the Medic and saw him nod while widening his eyes a little to emphasize for him to eat a little slower. We all got what we wanted, even though there were only three choices: Bacon, eggs, and toast. I noticed the five mercenaries, including myself, had a glass by their plate. I glanced at the color of orange that was being passed around, when it got to me I poured myself a glass of classy orange juice. Once everyone was situated, Engineer was the first to spark up a conversation.

"So anyone got any plans today?" He said, before taking a bite of his crispy bacon.

"OWH YMAH! IOM GOPING TOPM-" A hand came from behind the Scouts side and hit the back of his head.

"Don't eat and talk at zhe same time you dummkopf." Medics eyes glaring at the boy. Scout only rolled his eyes and finished chewing and swallowing before trying to speak again.

"As I was SAYIN', before I was rudely interrupted, was that I'm gonna be practicing some baseball with the FemScout. Then after I beat her at it, because I'm that awesome, probably gonna have to consult her because she can't handle my awesomeness." Just to prove his 'masculinity' he flexed his arms. Engineer made a contemptuous smile shaking his head side-to-side. Scout seemed to notice the mocking smirk from Engie and confronted him.

"You got somethin' to my face wise guy?!"

He finished eating the piece of egg he shoved into his mouth, washing it down with a sip of orange juice. "Hm? Boy, I'd be careful what you say. If she heard those words come out of your little mouth she'd beat your tail end to the ground."

Scout only rolled his eyes in response. "Pft... Please I could take her down any day..." he hesitated, drinking from his glass and finished his sentence. "B-But just don't tell her I said that..." His eyes went back to his food as he gulped every last grain of food down. I watched him lick his plate clean before sticking it in the sink and rushing out of the room. The room went silent again, the noise of forks scraping against the opaque glass plates. The taste of the eggs were delicious, it's warmth filling up my stomach. The grease of the bacon glistened in the light, it's crunch so satisfying. The smooth liquid tang ran down my throat, completing the mornings appetite. I sat back in my chair full from all of the freshly prepared breakfast meal.

"Vell I vill be working on new... experiments and finishing up some more paperwork for zhe administrator." said Medic after finishing his whole meal. We all pretty much finished and stayed at the table relaxing talking with each other, well other than me, I just listened.

"Hey any of you know if slims awake, or even here today?"

"Nein, but he's most likely still in zhat van of his."

"Docteur need help with paperwork?" The big guy finally spoke. He was pretty intent just listening but I guess he didn't want to sit around and be useless for the day. Other than me, I'd probably just walk around the base and get to know the place even better.

"Hm... Yes zhat would be vonderful Heavy." He pushed up his glasses looking at the friendly giant.

I glanced at the two and noticed something, I can't quite put a finger on it, but something's definitely there. When you just sit and watch, things are in a different view. You see everything; you notice everything. Every movement, expression, piece of dialogue is seen and heard at a different form. You see things that maybe another would overlook. I couldn't help but smile. I felt a pair of eyes stare at me and looked toward them, it was Pyro. He sat across from me, his eyes-er goggles-staring at me. He then shifted his glance at the two resting his chin on his fingertips. Did he notice it too?

"Well, I guess I'll go find him. I need some help with mah truck." He sat up from his chair and gathered all the dishes putting them in the sink for a later wash. Everyone slowly made there way out of the kitchen, all with the exception of me and Pyro. He watched everyone leave before switching his gaze back toward me. He just stared, I couldn't get a correct read. It was slightly making me feel uncomfortable, I felt as if his gaze was burrowing inside of me trying to find an answer. I quickly looked away toward the door, it didn't seen like anyone was coming. At the second I turned my gaze back toward him he wasn't in his chair anymore. A slight panic set through me as I felt the presence of something warm at my side. I looked up seeing stand before me, his head tilted. My mind wanted to know how he got up so fast and without any indication, before it being too late. His legs bent down to get at eyes level with me.

"MPH! mphph nmphti phm" he shouted, making me jump a little.

Although I couldn't understand what he was saying, the way we both had a brief connection earlier made me guess. "You noticed it too?" I said almost at a complete whisper. He nodded silently and stood still for a little, his mask staring right at me. I had this strange feeling, nothing threatening but comforting. Pyro snapped out of it and stood back up, his hand stretched out toward mine. He made a small sound, gesturing his hand for me to follow him. He walked toward the exit and turned back to look at me. I stared like a lost child, but went with it. 'Uh I hate these weird gut feelings inside of me.' I thought.

I got up from the chair and followed right behind him, I saw a new side of Pyro. A more innocent childlike personality emit from him. Maybe it was the way he walked or the way his aura seemed to brighten, but it was an interesting side I wanted to explore. He stopped by his room and turned the knob, upon entering his room he flipped on the light switch. I gasped at the sights, there were drawings, balloons, stuffed animals, and other collectibles. If I wouldn't have known the mercenaries and came upon this room, I'd think it would've belonged to a 5 year old child. My gaze shifted each inch of the room taking a closer look at everything. Lots of drawings were colored in crayon each of them showing a different colored picture. The one that really stood out to me was the one that looked like a drawing of all the mercenaries together under poorly drawn rainbow. My eyes focused in more seeing each and every single one of them, even myself. I could feel the Pyros gaze behind me and turned around.

"You drew that?" I asked calmly. Another characteristic appeared, a shy one. He rocked his body left to right, hands behind his back, mumbling something incomprehensible. Once again, I took a guess. "It's beautiful." I looked back at the picture and then back at him. A new light reached his eyes, his body seemed to cheer up seeming like a 5 year old child who was rewarded with ice cream for dinner. He jumped up in down in short bursts and came running after me. His arms wrapping around me and squeezing me gently.

"MHPHM MPHMPH!" An excitement reached his voice. He went to the middle of his room and patted the ground, I took as a hint to sit down. I sat crisscross applesauce style and watched him scurry around his room. He took out a big pink stuffed unicorn and placed it in front of me, then hurried back to another location to get some other objects of his. By the time he was done Pyro sat across from me and took one of his objects trying to explain something to me. I watched and listened to him, trying to decode any words that I could make out. He started out with the big fluffy stuffed animal that sat in front of me. He stroked it's head as if it were a real pet and nuzzled it's nostrils against the nose of his mask. Pyro stared back at me and extended his hands to where it looked like he was giving me the animal. I took it and smiled back at him. Another spark of light flashed in the eyes of his mask. He clapped giving out a joyful cry. He rushed to get a piece of clothing that was pink, puffy, and feathery. He grabbed the scarf and wrapped it carefully around my neck, he took a step back to observe me. He posed pondering like a fashion designer trying to figure out if it was the right choice. I giggled at the thought and smiled at the firebug. I got the idea to stand up and pose like a supermodel, using the new gift he gave me as a prop.

"How do I look?" I said, slowly spinning around placing my hand on my hip sassy like. He nodded happily and quickly grabbed some blank sheets of paper and half of a broken purple crayon. He bent down to write something, as I continued to do ridiculous poses. He lifted up the piece of paper and mumbled some words "MHMMHM mph mfph!" The sign read '10/10' which for some reason made me laugh. He gathered some more of his creative supplies and sat in the middle of the room. He laid on his stomach and took one of his crayons, he extended one toward me. I looked at him and then at the object he was offering. I smiled and nodded taking the crayon from his gloved hand. I saw his offer as a chance of acceptance. An opportunity to be welcomed into his world, it felt nice. He gave out a small muffled laugh and immediately started drawing all kinds of rainbows and magical creatures. His mind was definitely interesting, it made me wonder how Pyro was accepted onto the team. I watched him draw with the worn out crayons seeing how innocent he acted. It really made me think how the mercs saw him as man of destruction, a monster. I couldn't see through their eyes, I saw a little boy whose misunderstood. Maybe out on the battlefield he seemed like a savage, but behind that mask I knew there was something more. I sat down across from him and took a sheet of paper and began to sketch one of sisters favorite flowers. I starting drawing the petals of a Blue Phalaenopsis Silk Orchid, it would have looked better if the rough texture of the crayon didn't leave small blotches. I smiled to myself getting too involved in what I was doing. It took me back to when I use to color with my sister. She would always draw all sorts of animals with her perfectly sharpened pencil.

"Phmph, phat mph muphhul." I looked up seeing his rubber hands touch the sides of his face. One of his hands abandoned the side of his face and took it's attention to my drawing. He looked down at it and then back at me.

"What?..." I asked a little worried.

He kept his gaze at the paper hypnotized and amazed. Pyro let out a 'oooooo' sound fascinated by the drawing. "Oh, it's a flower. It use to be a favorite of my sister..." I said awkwardly fading out of my words. It felt weird talking about her to Pyro, I wasn't sure if he fully knew my situation or what was going on. I guess the good part about him is that he doesn't pry into people's business. He quickly stood and frantically started to search for something. I raised an eyebrow, "uh...is...everything alright Pyro." I asked slightly concerned. His actions and emotions changed so quickly, I couldn't keep up. I stayed where I was keeping an eye on the man to make sure nothing serious happened, his mind was a little unstable. His body seemed to relax as he found what he was looking for. I heard a large container being dragged across the wooded floor. He brought the case over to where I was. It looked rusted over, parts of the paint that use to be there chipped and worn away. He took out a key from one of his pockets and unlocked it like a chest. He concentrated scavenging his hands inside and took out a piece of cloth. He set it aside and looked at me.

"What's this?" I asked.

He shoved the clumped up piece of cloth toward me and nodded for me to go ahead. I slowly picked up the cloth, which had a bit of a weight to it, and unraveled it. Inside was a small locket and an old picture. I took a closer observation at the locket. The necklace part was gold with an old corroded gold heart shaped locket. I gently flipped it open seeing a small picture of a woman with smooth skin, long straight black hair, and green eyes. Part of the picture was scratched and damaged due to it's age. I rubbed my thumb gently over the picture and focused my eyes over to my other hand. A bigger photograph of the original. It was more cleaner and fresh, but still a little rusty looking.

"I-is this your mommy?" I sounded like a little kid lost in the woods, but I believe in order to understand a person you have to speak their language. Pyro nodded and sighed. "She's beautiful..." I gave a small smile. "Why are you showing me this?" My thoughts wanted to know the reasons why Pyro would show me, let alone trust me to look at something so sentimental and close to him.

"Mph mmphpmh pghmmhp." He picked up my drawing of the flower and held it delicately in his hands. He pointed at the picture and then pointed at the objects in my hands. I inhaled and then let out an 'oooooh' sound seeing where he was getting at. It was nice for Pyro to give me a little bit of insight about his mom, in return for giving him a little peak about my life. I watched him stand and take the picture pinning it to his collection of drawing against the wall. He backed up putting his hands on his hips and nodding happily. His head turned around to look at me and gave a thumbs up, I did the same in return.

Our quiet little moment was interrupted by a knock at the door. Both of our heads snapped to the sound, and I could see Pyro shuffling his way toward me. I handed him his things back, he wrapped them back in the cloth quickly and placed it back in its rightful location in the case. He shoved the case back under the safety of his bed. Another knock came from the door.

"Hey Pyro, have you seen the Spy by any chance? The Female one." The Engineer said talking against the wooden door. Pyro looked at me, his notion asking if he should open the door. I nodded and he turned the knob open having the door creak forward.

"PHM HPM!" He said. He positioned his body as if he was really saying "TA DA!" I was still sitting down in the middle of the floor looking up at the country man.

"Ah there you are. I was wondering if ya' wanted to help out me and Sniper with some of the mechanical fixtures under one of the vehicles, but it seems that you're already busy... coloring?" My eyes shifted over to Pyro but he was already lifting me up from the ground and pushing me out the room. I turned around to say something but he already waved for me to go and closed the door. I turned to look at Engineer.

"Well, I don't know what all that was about but you wanna help?" A jolly personality, great.

"..." I nodded smiling, accepting the request. "Haha, great to hear. Follow me." He started walking and I followed behind him. I took one last glance back looking at the front of Pyro's closed door. I smiled a bit feeling good about digging a little deeper into the mind of the 'oh so monstrous' Pyro.

* * *

 **To be continued...**

 **It's time to take things a little slow. In her time of the ceasefire Kayla's going to be getting to know a few of her mercenary friends a little better. She now has a new fond relationship with the little firebug. Thank you for all the reviews, follows, and favorites! LOVE YA**


	10. Chapter 10: Helping out

**Previous:**

Our quiet little moment was interrupted by a knock at the door. Both of our heads snapped to the sound, and I could see Pyro shuffling his way toward me. I handed him his things back, he wrapped them back in the cloth quickly and placed it back in its rightful location in the case. He shoved the case back under the safety of his bed. Another knock came from the door.

"Hey Pyro, have you seen the Spy by any chance? The Female one." The Engineer said talking against the wooden door. Pyro looked at me, his notion asking if he should open the door. I nodded and he turned the knob open having the door creak forward.

"PHM HPM!" He said. He positioned his body as if he was really saying "TA DA!" I was still sitting down in the middle of the floor looking up at the country man.

"Ah there you are. I was wondering if ya' wanted to help out me and Sniper with some of the mechanical fixtures under one of the vehicles, but it seems that you're already busy... coloring?" My eyes shifted over to Pyro but he was already lifting me up from the ground and pushing me out the room. I turned around to say something but he already waved for me to go and closed the door. I turned to look at Engineer.

"Well, I don't know what all that was about but you wanna help?" A jolly personality, great.

"..." I nodded smiling, accepting the request. "Haha, great to hear. Follow me." He started walking and I followed behind him. I took one last glance back looking at the front of Pyro's closed door. I smiled a bit feeling good about digging a little deeper into the mind of the 'oh so monstrous' Pyro.

* * *

 **Continuation:**

 **~{:Chapter 10-Helping out:}~**

Engineer lead me out the back door of the base to enter the outside world. Even though it was still pretty early in the morning I could instantly feel the heat radiate off the ground. I rolled up the sleeves of my shirt and put my leather gloves in my back pocket. The rays of the sun fell down like daggers against my skin. My mask didn't help either, I felt like my head was being choked by the tight material, but I dealt with it. 'Jesus, how did Spy manage to breathe with this mask on, let alone in this heat.' I didn't understand, I honestly just wanted to rip the mask off. 'Control... Control...' I thought to myself.

"Damn, I swear it gets hotter and hotter each year." He said wiping his forehead with a dirty piece of cloth. "Just a little farther and then we can get to work." He looked back assuring me that I wouldn't have to walk much farther in the devils heat. I nodded looking around the dusted location. To my far right it didn't seem like much, just a path to nowhere, but to my right I could just see the tip of enemy base. It was pretty far away, but just a little to close for my comfort. I continued to walk behind the country man until we came upon a small little building. Maybe a garage?

"Here we are. It doesn't necessarily have air conditioning, but it's definitely cooler." He held the door open for me. I walked inside the, larger than average, garage seeing a few lights and a few cars, even a motorcycle. Each vehicle seemed to fit some of the mercenaries personalities. The farthest away was an old looking ambulance fitting for the Medic, a decent looking motorcycle for the Soldier, a pale light red truck that sat in the middle of the room for Engineer, and another car that was hidden under a car cover. I thought that maybe it was the Spy's but I wasn't 100% sure. I disregarded the Snipers van, because well it's always outside.

"Oi, you brought the sheila along." said the Australian. I turned my gaze to him and saw him sitting in one of the roller chairs by the working desk. It looked like the garage was Engineer's own workshop. It had all kinds of contraptions just for cars. A toolbox was left on the working desk along with car parts, blueprints, and oiled stained rags.

"Yeah, thought maybe she could help us with some of the more smaller spaced tasks." I watched Engineer walk toward his working space and grab a few tools.

"Seems about right." The Sniper said approaching the Engineers truck. I stood watching the Sniper open up the hood of the truck. He looked back at the country man and waited for him to give him instructions. "So whot's exactly wrong with your truck, mate?"

"The battery needs to be replaced, the wheels need to be rotated, oil needs to be changed, and the serpentine belt needs to be replaced as well."

"Alright, seems loike we got our work cut out for us. Where do ya' wanna start first?" Both of our eyes turned to the Engineer. He grabbed his car jack and stands, along with a few other tools to help unscrew the lug nuts on the tire. During the process of fixing up his truck, I'm pretty sure I became an expert on car mechanics in about 4 hours.

"We'll start with the wheels first, then move on to the oil, the serpentine belt, and then progress to the car battery." His goggles reflected off the light as he spoke. I nodded just agreeing to his words, not understanding a single word he just said at the time. In fact, I'm pretty sure I zoned out at the point where he said start. I saw the Engineer begin to place the car jack under the sides of the car while Sniper slid the car stands under all the wheels. I felt a little useless standing there doing nothing, but watched them do all the work so far. They stood back up taking a step back looking to see if the two side tires were even.

"Have any experience working with cars?" Engie said looking back at me. I shook my head no and shrugged. I remembered my dad talking about teaching me the basics of a car, but he never got around to showing me. I noticed the Engineer smile and watched his face light up with joy. "Well I'd be happy to show you a few things if you'd like." A small smile spread across my face. I was pretty excited to be doing hands on work, and being a help for the work.

"I'll take that as a yes." He gave my back a quick pat and went back over to his truck. His hand gestured for me to come over, I approached preparing to learn a little bit about mechanics.

We both bend down and look closer at the tires. He points to the tire of the wheel and begins his little lecture of what we're going to be doing. "We're going to be starting off rotating the tires. Essentially we are going to be taking off the tires and changing the position so that the tread wear can be evenly worn. Now the reason why you would even bother to rotate your tires is because the front tires and back tires wear differently. You have to think of weight distribution, more weight is going to be in the front than the back. Same goes for the sides of the car. The front right side of the car is more likely to be worn down than the front left wheel of the car. That's why you have to rotate your tires, otherwise you're going to have uneven tread wear." He patted the tires and stood back up. "You still with me?" I instantly nod understanding what was going on so far. I watched him grab his tool kit and bend down to the first tire. "The thing you have to know about rotating your tires is that there's a specific pattern you gotta follow. You either got Directional tires or Non-Directional tires. The type I got are Directional so we're just gonna take these babies and move them to the rear and move the back tires to the front." He gestured over to the tire we were at and then toward the back. 'Seems simple' I thought.

"Now we're just gonna unscrew all the lug nuts-which are these little screw lookin' things here-and take..." A loud crash echoed from behind us, our head instantly turning.

"Golly Slim you look like a deer in the headlights, ya' almost gave me a heart attack." Sniper was sitting in a chair by the working desk and propped his legs on the weak wood, causing it to topple over."

"Moi bad... But nooo, please, continue with your little lecture on cars to the sheila. Wouldn't want to interrupt that. I'll just be sittin' here... doing nothing..." Sarcasm poured out the Snipers mouth.

"Well since you're doing nothing. I need you to get the other side done while I show her how to do this side." Engineer didn't have to speak anymore, fore the Sniper was already out of the chair and grabbing the extra supplies to work to switch the tires. He focused his attention back on me and continued where he left off.

"So you're going to take them while I unscrew them with this lug nut wrench." He paused to take out the large bolts connected to the hub cap that he called lug nuts. He gave them to me one by one, I soon collected them all from the one tire. He took off the tires and placed on it's side on the ground. Moving onto the rear tire, Engie repeated the process as I did the same. This time he took the rear tire and placed it where, originally, the front tires was. The same destiny went for the front tire, now replaced as the back tire.

"Alright Spa come here, you wanna try putting back on the lug nuts? It's simple, I just want you to twist them back on like this." He demonstrated by taking one of the lug nuts from my hand and placing the bolt to it's rightful place. He looked at me and gestured his head for me to try, Engie took a step back to give me room. I placed all of the lug nuts beside me in a pile and took one spinning it around the screw until my strength couldn't spin it any further, repeated the process until they were all full. I looked over toward Engineer seeing him already put the new rear tire on in it's place. I scooted over to the side and did the same to the tire until it was complete. The Mechanical Engineer made his way behind me to the front tire and started tightening up the lug nuts. I noticed he went in a star motion when tightening the bolts to the car. I bent down to watch him and he told me what he was doing. The information was quite useful and interesting. He handed me the wrench and I looked at him with a 'what are you doing' facial expression.

"I want you to try it for yourself. Just go in the pattern that I did. All you gotta do are tighten up the back tires." I nodded and moved myself toward the back fitting the wrench onto the bolt. I went into the same pattern and motion, mimicking what he'd done.

"There ya' go, now you're learnin'." He encouraged.

I heard the sound of footsteps come from the other side of the truck, soon migrating over to my side. I didn't bother to look, knowing that it was Sniper who'd probably finished with the two tires. As my suspicions were right the Australians accent appeared.

"The two tires are finished, how's the sheila doin'?"

"She's doing great."

"Better than what the spook would do?"

The Engineer shook his head and chuckled. "He wouldn't even get his knees on the dirty floor." They both laughed, but I ignored them focusing on the task at hand. Once they all seemed to be tightened I sat my bottom on the heels on my feet and exhaled deeply. It was starting to get a little hot, even in the shaded garage, my mask and uniform did not help. I looked up at the two and noticed Engie with a white tank on with his pants rolled up halfway. His yellow helmet was also missing from his head, I got a good glance with what was underneath-sorta. There wasn't any hair, just a shiny bald head. Although, he still had his goggles on over his eyes. Some sweat glistened on the side of his face, while Sniper looked unphased. I wiped the back of my neck and stood up to take off the under armour revealing the black tank underneath.

"Want some water?" Engineer offered. I looked at him and nodded starting to get frustrated with the mask attached to my face. It felt like heat was radiating from the mask giving no insulation. 'uhhh... forget it. I'm going to lose my mind!' So what I did was take off the mask and wrapped my hair in a ponytail. I sat the constricting material beside me making sure I didn't lose it. I watched the gazes of both of the mercs stare in a little bit of disbelief. Engineer gave me a water bottle still holding the face that Sniper reflected back. I stared back with a 'What?' expression. I mean really, did I do something wrong? It's not like they've never seen me with my mask off, they saw me the first day I came here. What's so different from that day?

A small laugh came from the lanky man. "Haha, you are definitely not like the spook that's for sure mate." He shook his head grinning and took a sip of the water Engineer got for him.

I looked confused at the two. '...wait don't tell me Spy hasn't took off his mask?...' I thought.

"Oi, whot's that face for? Wait.. You do know right?" His glance shifted over to Engie who looked back at Sniper and shrugged.

"You sure got some moxie in ya' kid."

 _Moxie? what?_

"Oi haven't seen the spook without his mask off in years. Oi don't even remember if he actually ever did take off his mask... Well at least not in front of the team." Sniper said taking a break to take a drink.

"Slims right, spa always kept his mask on. I just assumed, you bein' a spa and all, you would do the same. Guess ya' just proved me wrong." Engie gave out a small chuckle and patted the middle of my back. I turned fully around and sat down leaning my back against the wheel of the truck.

"Ey, stretch, what time is it?"

Sniper check the watch on his hand saying it was almost time for lunch. Engineer nodded and looked down at me. "Ready to learn how to change the oil?" Both of their eyes on mine. I stood up and dusted off my bottom before following over to the front of the car with Sniper and Engie. They lifted up the hood, I snaked my way between them to get a better look.

"You see this?" The mechanic asked pointed to the Engine.

I nodded a 'yes'. "Good this is the engine."

'well noooooooooo, I may be uneducated when it comes to cars but I know what an engine looks like.' Of course, I didn't have the will to say it to his face.

"Now if you come down here." He shifted himself toward the side of the car and slid himself partially underneath the car. I followed behind him, but on the other side of the vehicle. "The oil drain plug is located beneath the engine block near the crankshaft, right here." He pointed to another part of truck that looked like a knob. Seemed to be located easy enough.

"Sniper mind handin' me the 3/8" ratchet, extensions and oil pan."

"On it." I watched Sniper go through the toolbox and working desk to search for whatever Engineer just said. His feet could be seen from underneath the car walking all over the place, until he came behind Engie. "Here ya' go." He slid of the tools under the vehicle.

Engineer pulled the supplies over to the front where it sat in the middle of us. "Alright Sniper I'm gonna need you to twist off the oil cap off up there."

"Already did." Sniper replied back.

The country man's eyes-uh goggles-focused back on me. "Takes this." He handed me the wrench looking thing-what did he call it? A ratchet? Well he gave me it and pointed to the drain plug. "You're gonna take that ratchet and attach it to the plug and twist it off." I was more flexible when it came for my turn to do something. Thankfully being kind of weak and small I could stretch myself underneath the car quicker and easier. Immediately I placed the wrench on the bolt and started turning the ratchet. His hands jumped grabbing my arm causing me to stop and look alarmed.

"WHOA WHOA.. haha, hold on there partner. I gotta place the oil pan underneath before you start doing any of that. Unless you want to be covered in black lookin' oil."

I let go, feeling slightly embarrassed, and waited until he placed the pan to catch all the old used oil.

"Now you can go ahead and do it."

Once he gave me the okay I started to continue where I left off. I quickly took off the plug seeing the black oil come rushing out of it's holding cell. It looked disgusting, all thick and black. It reminded me of runny tar. YUCK! We both watched the black liquid goop fall into the container until it started to slow down.

"Aright you can twist the cap back on and then Slim will start pouring in the new oil. I did what I was told twisting back on the cap and tightening it back up with the ratchet wrench thingy. I slid back from underneath the truck and walked back to the front to monitor what Sniper was doing. Engie had gotten the bad oil from under the car and placed it beside one of garbage cans, he then walked back over to where me and Sniper were. I noticed that the Aussie was placing a white shaped funnel into the tube where the oil is suppose to go. He grabbed a jug of the oil and started to slowly pour in what was necessary. When he finished, he twisted back on the cap as Engie then took the oil dipstick to check the oil level. A smile appeared on his face, making me assume that we had successfully changed it correctly.

"How's it look?" asked the Australian as he took a oil stained towel to wipe off the residue remains from his hands.

"She's lookin' mighty fine."

"Good work mate." The Sniper congratulated. I felt a little warmth in my mind and stomach from all the attention and applause. It felt good, it felt like I was actually contributing to part of the team. It may have not seemed like it at the time, but I suppose that's I really needed. Time. Surely things would just be better later on in the months. Once I actually knew everyone and some of the BLU team as well. A small low level growl echoed in the area. Me and Sniper shifted our gaze to the country man.

"Guess this means it's time for a lunch break." He said holding the area where the growl came from.

"Yeah I'd say so."

They both walked over to the Engineers working desk and cleaned up there hands a bit. I joined after they were finished.

"I'll be right back, I'll go get us our lunch alright guys? My treat, especially for our new recruit yeah?" The southern man said already approaching the garage doors to the outside.

"Really? Thanks mate, remember no mayo on the sandwich."

The man paused before walking outside, he turned back as if he was offended of something. "What?"

"I'm tryin' to lay off all the fatty stuff, I'm starting to loose my Sniper figure." Said the man himself, holding a part of his little bulging belly. In all honestly he didn't seem to be gaining too much weight. Besides the small gut that seemed to be there, it wasn't anything too serious... Not like the Heavy... But he's just big boned I guess.

I could sense the Engineer rolling his eyes underneath the glare of his goggles. "Psh... So ya' want extra mayo.. Got it." He left closing the doors shut. Sniper groaned but then laughed at the thought. He started to find chairs for all of us to sit in, but there was only two. I found an old tire and grabbed that and shoved it near the middle, where Sniper had gathered the chairs. He opened back up the garage doors to let in some more light. The heat of the day rushed inside making goosebumps spread across my arms.

"There we go." Sniper placed both of his hands on his hips and breathed in slowly giving out a deep breath. He stood there for a while. I watched how peaceful he looked just standing there soaking in the sun. He looked like he was in another world, apart from the war, apart from all the stress and chaos. I gave a small smile as I carefully watched him. I saw his shoulders relax and his back slouch a little, yup it was obvious. The climate didn't even bother him a bit, he was a natural with this kind of threatening heat. He snapped back to his reality and turned around to seeing me stare at him. He waved his hand at my face to break me out of my observations.

"Oi, you back on earth? Or are you in another world?"

I blinked a few times and then stared back at him. I nodded and let out a small breath sitting back into the whole of the tire. I relaxed and placed my hands behind my head looking up toward the ceiling. I heard the footsteps of the sharpshooter shift toward one of the chairs, the squeaking gave it away. I enjoyed the short minute of silence before I looked back toward the outside.

"Hey.. You did a nice job with the oil and tires."

I looked at the Sniper and smiled.

"Oi remember the first time oi had to learn to do all that. Oi was a stubborn kid, still am... Except I'm not much of a kid anymore." I smile and chuckled. My smile seemed contagious as he tried to hold back a grin. His gaze looked out the door gazing upon the scenery out in the distance continuing to talk. "My dad would try to keep my attention on trucks and cars, but I found my fascination in animals more appealing. But he forced me into it anyways. I learned how to do all these things that I never really thought were important at the time. Once me van started to get old she started to fall apart, oi fixed her up and was thankful for listening to me dad about how to fix up all the problems."

I kept my eyes to what he was looking at. I could see the wave of heat move just a few feet above the ground, dancing on the hot surface. "Don't get me wrong oi still have a passion for animals. I actually took me van and rode toward the outback and survived there ever since I went to be out on my own. Self taught myself to use a gun, then upgraded to a sniper's rifle. Kept that sheila with me everywhere oi went."

His words began to make sense with his personality. He acted like an animal, not the one in the sense of loosing control and attacking anything and everything, but in a sense of instinct and character. He was tough and acted on survival instincts, he seemed to be precise, accurate, calm, and collected. Attributes of being a Sniper.

"W-What...was it like?"

His attention snapped to me. I kept looking straight too scared of looking at his expression. I took another chance of talking. It seemed easier with the Spy and Pyro, but this time I felt like I had crashed into a pile of rocks.

"Australia? It was alright... Depends where you are oi guess, being in the outback can really take a lot out of ya'. Oi didn't mind it though, it was nice and quiet. Just gotta make sure you watch your back, otherwise you'll be dead." I looked at him seeing his eyes already looking toward me. I couldn't get a read on the man, he was hiding something behind those blue eyes of his. But I didn't pry, not yet.

There was a small silence that divided between us. I couldn't tell if it was good or not, but it was interjected as he spoke different words that caught me off guard.

"Thanks mate, for trusting me."

'Where did that come from...' "Huh?" I said.

"Oi haven't heard you talk ever since you got here. Thought that you were mute or something, but guess I'm wrong about that." He gave a friendly laugh and continued. "Oi just appreciate ya' trusting me is all. It's kind of hard find that when you're in this bloody war for 20 or so years. You remind me of some of the animals in Australia."

I didn't give any sign of expression. _20 years?... How long had this war been going on. I know that we were fighting for the greater good, but I guess I didn't stop and think to what we were fighting for. What is this 'greater good'._ I was pulled out of my thoughts as Sniper began to speak again.

"You are timid and alert but once you get use to everything and everyone you start to branch out. Seeing how you spoke to me makes me feel like you trust me. But then again oi could just be blabbering nonsense and give you the impression of a creepy bloke." He shrugged and took a drink of his water.

"No.. I think you're fine. Although I'm a little creeped out about the fact you sort of figured me out." I gave a weak smile.

"Yeah... I get the impression that everyone's an animal, you just have to figure out what species they are."

I gave thought to it. I didn't really take Sniper as one of the wise guys in the team, but I guess you can never judge a book by it's cover. Just on time Engineer walked in with our lunch and passed everyone's around. We all enjoyed our food and I listened to Engineer and Sniper talk together about the trucks' next fix. I didn't understand some of their technical talk, but I didn't mind the chatter. I enjoyed their company and just listening to them talk back and forth. I studied their expressions. Engineer was someone you could trust, along with Sniper. Engineer was really open, he talked about his past life down in Texas. He seemed really well educated with his PhD and all. The Engineer is smart, kind, and a great problem solver. Sniper was open too, but I could sense that he was leaving something else out. The Sniper looked sympathetic-to an extent-he's smart, a survivor, he was tactical with his resources.

 _ **CRASH! *SHATTER SOUNDS***_

I ducked from my position and looked up seeing Engineer and Sniper immediately stand up. "You think it's another ambush?" I heard the Sniper say.

"Not sure." I could sense the worry in their voices and eyes.

I dove over to the truck and quickly grabbed my mask, took down my hair, placed it on moving all of the annoying pieces of hair from sticking out. I saw some movement in the corner of my eye and looked toward the moving object. It rolled toward the tire I was sitting in and bumped into it. I picked up the object getting a better look at it.

"You gotta be bloody kidding me." I looked at Sniper seeing him look at the object I was holding in my hands. Soon enough Engie was looking in the same direction. His face fell and looked angry. He snatched the object from my hand and stomped toward the entrance of the garage.

"Ah told them not to play near the base or garage!"

I got up from where I was sitting and looked out the window. In the distance I could hear a couple of swears from a man and woman. They seemed to be arguing as they got closer to the building, while Sniper and I followed our way behind Engineer.

"What did I tell you two about playing baseball around the base and garage! You shattered another window." His voice was raised and intimidating.

"Look it wasn't my fault, she's the one who hit it." The Scout blamed.

"Pft, at least I don't hit like a sissy." replied back the FemScout.

"Just stop playing around the base and we won't have a problem alright?" Engineer seemed his calm his voice down as he sighed heavily at the two.

"Got it hard hat!" The female chirped.

"Is that understood Scout."

"Yeah... Yeah I understand, can I have my ball back now?"

He gave Scout his ball back and watched him begin to walk off. Scout stopped to look back at his companion. "You comin' with or what?"

"Yeah I'll meet you back there I just wanna talk to them real quick." FemScout wavered Scout off, only to be left with his eyes rolling.

I watched rest her bat on her right shoulder and look at me. "Hey new girl, you wanna play ball with us. We need anotha' person to play the game we wanna try out." She was chewing a piece of bubble gum in her mouth. I looked at Engie and Sniper.

"Yeah go ahead..." The man next to me gave me a little push forward and I looked back at him, he winked at me. "Don't worry about it partner me and Sniper can finish up the rest, go have fun with the two... Oh and make sure that they don't get into anymore trouble will ya?"

The FemScout looked annoyed at the Engineer and then at me. "Are you comin' or not."

I walked toward her and joined her as she gave out a little smirk and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. I didn't look back but I could already tell they walked back in to finish up what we began. I noticed the female sniff the air and then trail it back to me. "You smell that? Smells like... some kinda oil or somethin'. Jeez what did they make you do, bathe in a tub of motor oil or some shit? Whatever I don't care. Hey you ever play ball? I'm amazing at it! Did I ever tell you the time that... _bla bla bla bla...blahblabla..._ " Her mind changed from one subject to the other, not committing to one thing except for herself. It was going to be a long day with the two.

"Hey! You like chicken?"

* * *

 **To be continued...**

 **She's had her small moment with Spy, spent her morning hanging out with Pyro, and committed the afternoon to helping Engie with his truck. Even had her time with Sniper, but now it's time to play some ball with the two chatter boxes. Time to hang out and get to know the Scouts.**

 **Thank you for the favourites (or favorites however you prefer to spell it), reviews, and follows! They really make me smile, making my day 10x better. See you in the next chapter.**


	11. Chapter 11: A New Perspective

**Previous:**

"Got it hard hat!" The female chirped.

"Is that understood Scout."

"Yeah... Yeah I understand, can I have my ball back now?"

He gave Scout his ball back and watched him begin to walk off. Scout stopped to look back at his companion. "You comin' with or what?"

"Yeah I'll meet you back there I just wanna talk to them real quick." FemScout wavered Scout off, only to be left with his eyes rolling.

I watched rest her bat on her right shoulder and look at me. "Hey new girl, you wanna play ball with us. We need anotha' person to play the game we wanna try out." She was chewing a piece of bubble gum in her mouth. I looked at Engie and Sniper.

"Yeah go ahead..." The man next to me gave me a little push forward and I looked back at him, he winked at me. "Don't worry about it partner me and Sniper can finish up the rest, go have fun with the two... Oh and make sure that they don't get into anymore trouble will ya?"

The FemScout looked annoyed at the Engineer and then at me. "Are you comin' or not."

I walked toward her and joined her as she gave out a little smirk and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. I didn't look back but I could already tell they walked back in to finish up what we began. I noticed the female sniff the air and then trail it back to me. "You smell that? Smells like... some kinda oil or somethin'. Jeez what did they make you do, bathe in a tub of motor oil or some shit? Whatever I don't care. Hey you ever play ball? I'm amazing at it! Did I ever tell you the time that... _bla bla bla bla...blahblabla..._ " Her mind changed from one subject to the other, not committing to one thing except for herself. It was going to be a long day with the two.

"Hey! You like chicken?"

* * *

 **Continuation:**

 **~{:Chapter 11-A New Perspective:}~**

I was being dragged to my destination by the Female Scout. We walked a little ways out, away from the base to decrease the chances of getting in trouble again. Through walking in the silence a pop came from the FemScouts mouth. I glanced over seeing a peek of pink go back into her mouth, it looked sticky, elastic, and chewy.

"So how you likin' it here so far newbie? Usually people like you start goin' crazy and lose their shit because they don't know what they're gettin' themselves into." I could feel her glance stare at me waiting for a reply.

I looked over to her shrugging giving a half slanted smile.

"Oh yeah... forgot ya' can't talk. Anyways..." She paused trying to probably figure out another conversation to strike up, and not the one to disappoint, she did. "I remember my first day here, training was a bitch but whateva'. Gotta do whatcha gotta do I guess. Came ova' to the base just like you waiting for my results and found out my destiny was bein' a Scout. But I already knew I was fit for the position." She looked at her nails as if to signify her bragging.

"Then soon I was paired up with that nutjob of a Scout, we got along and he tried proving his weak masculine self. I dunno, must be a male thing." She shrugged and continued talking as we made our way over to the location. I noticed her posture change, it started to become more slouched and relaxed. Her face seemed comfortable and mellow. "When my first battle came around I felt these weird feelings in my stomach, ya' know? It was a different feelin' but of course I couldn't let any of the guys witness it. I'm not a pansy ya' know!" Her tone of voice started to get a little more defensive, that was different.

"Anyhow, when I got out on the battlefield I was... it was a different thing to experience. Every second my ears started popin' and ringin', out of instinct I ran. Scratch that, I didn't run I.. uh... I helped, yeah, helped out and started boppin' some assholes on the head. Had to show the some of the men who's boss right? And some of the women as well but you can't be seen vulnerable or weak around the guys, you can loose a good rep if ya' do. After my first day I started gettin' some attention from they boys and I liked it, A LOT. People started seein' me differently after that, people started to see my real awesomeness. And let me tell ya' sweet cheeks it's about GOD DAMN TIME!"

I chuckled and rolled my eyes. I don't know if there was anything that I missed completely but if I didn't know any better I'd say the FemScout was rather self-conscious of herself. I kept the thought in the back of mind. Not for long the few minutes of silence was busted by the loud Scout. Not surprisingly.

"HEY GUYS OVA' HERE!" In the distance I could see the Scout waving for our attention. He was propped on top of a rock throwing his baseball up and then catching it as it fell. He slide down the rock-or bolder-meeting us half way. "It's about damn time, you guys are such slow pokes."

"What? Two hot girls can't take a stroll through the heat of the sun, im practically sweatin' under these clothes." I saw Scouts eyes widen and swallow the lump in his throat seeing the edges of his cheeks turn a dust of pink. Though I couldn't tell if it was from the heat making him flush or the embarrassment he had to face.

"HAHAHAH! Jeez, you're such a perv." FemScout rolled her eyes bringing her bat down to her waist.

"W-What.. No... NO! I'M NOT!... Well... Whateva' shouldn't we be playin' a game or somethin'." He turned around getting into position, changing the subject. I saw the FemScout smirk at her victory.

"Throw me the ball." Without hesitation Scout threw the ball and she caught it and faced me. "Here I want you to pitch while me and Scout hit. Can you do that?" I nodded and in return she did the same. I watched the two argue for who was going to go first and waited for them to get into position. The Scout drew a pentagon with the toe of his shoe in the dried up dirt readying himself. He placed his feet apart and squatted just a little bit. His hand moved his hat up a little so he could see and with a determined face he nodded at me. I faced my body to the side and turned my head toward the Scout to where I was looking at him, took one step toward him, lifted my opposing leg and threw the ball. It hurdled toward him, but the way I threw the ball ended up going too far to the left of him.

"Ugh... Jeez...newbies..." Scout face palmed in disappointment. "HEY!" FemScout nudged hard into her companions ribs causing him to look at her in retaliation. She gave him an intimidating look changing his expression to a surrendering one. She walked back to retrieve the ball and started to walk toward me.

"Here let me show ya' a few tricks. Take the ball."

I did as she said and took the ball.

"Alright good, now watch me carefully. Look at how my feet are leveled, watch my body positions, and make sure to look how I move got it?"

I nodded alright seeing her get into position. I looked at her feet, her hands, her shoulders, everything. She moved so fast and smoothly I didn't quite catch all the major details. She imitated how you were suppose to throw a ball, with such speed and amazing sharp precise moves.

"Your turn newbie you try. Let's start with gettin' into position first, yeah? With your throwing position you're gonna have to keep your feet at a level distance. Don't stagga' ya' feet or your gonna mess up everything." She pointed down to my feet and my eyes followed with. I moved my feet away from each other at a level stance.

"Good now turn your torso away from the target like this." Instead of facing her whole frontal view in front of the Scout she turned to the side facing her shoulder toward him. I followed right behind her mimicking carefully each step. FemScout turned around, facing me, placing her hands on my waist and shifted me a little more to my side. "There ya' go. Perfect! Now stay like that and don't screw that stance up. Cool, so when you throw the ball keep your feet and shoulders in line."

I nodded to giving her notice that I was listening. She smiled.

"Good. Now when throwing the ball you use important joints such as the wrist, elbow, and shoulder."

Her facts about joints started to remind me of Medic with all the technical anatomy terminology.

"Hey!... Newbie ya' back on earth... Listen." She snapped her fingers in my face getting me out of my thoughts. I blinked a few times concentrating back to what was going on. "Anyways make sure when you throw you keep a bent elbow during each throw while making a windmill-like motion. That will give you some of the force of propelling it forward. Most of the energy will come from your step and launch. As you're about to release the ball like this, keep your wrist bent so that the palm of your hand is facing forward prior to releasing the ball." She started to give a quick demonstration as she spoke pretending to throw a ball carefully moving to show me all the details. "Got it?"

I nodded with a face of determination.

"Good, just give it a try and we will see if we gotta improve anything from there." FemScout moved back over behind Scout. She gave the thumbs up, "Just throw wheneva' your ready... But ya' know... try to hurry."

I took position and took a deep breath looking at the ground. I looked back up at Scout marking him, analyzing to where I was going to throw. I took my dominant foot taking a step back to face my side. I turned my head toward the Scout, took my less dominant foot forward and motioned by body bringing my arm forward as well. My elbow was kept bent midway, as I was going for the full throw my arm extended out just a little bit above my shoulder and with the flick of my wrist the ball penetrated through the air. My arm went back down and my most dominant foot left slightly turned.

"Good job newbie!" applauded the Female Scout.

"But ya' need to practice that again... you kinda threw it too high up this time, try letting go a little later." advised the Scout

I took his words into count and went back into position. Just as the same sequence as the last I repeated everything except this time I released a little bit later. As a result a surprisingly pleasant sound came from the bat. It made a high cracking sound that echoed through the deserted place. My eyes followed the ball, which went rather far. I looked back at the two Scouts, noticing a pleased look on their faces.

"Not so bad for a first timer I guess." Shrugged the FemScout creeping a smile across her face.

"YEAH! Betta' then that backstabbin' scum bag Spy, fo' sure..."

I didn't give much thought to Scouts words, he seemed to be all talk without any care of how his words came out. But I couldn't help but recognize the similarity of how the Spy seemed to be perceived on the team. The Scouts-uh Scout-didn't seem to like the man. I could only assume the FemScout didn't either. Sniper and Engie saw him as a elegant man, too concentrated on his own style and looks. Although, he did seem professional in his job so it would only make sense. But in my perspective I didn't necessarily see all of that. Okay fine I did, **BUT** disregarding what the Scout thought of the Spy he knew how to do his job and he did it right. At least from what I've been hearing and seeing so far.

Scout ran to fetch the ball back, in the meantime FemScout got into position ready to take her turn. With his fast feet Scout ran quickly after the ball, grabbed it and returned.

"Bettcha' can't do betta' than that!" He bragged giving a cheeky smirk.

"Yeah we'll see about that..." The female muttered.

With the flick of her hat she was ready, giving the signal I got myself into throwing position once again and pitched. With another loud crack into the sky the ball flew into the air. We all looked after the ball covering our eyes to protect it from the sun from burning them dry. I squinted trying to locate how far the ball went, but it was proving to be hard with the sun's rays glaring off the atmosphere with it's radiating heat emitting from the ground. In her triumph the female runner gave an emphasized 'HA' and smiled back at the Scout.

"I'm pretty sure I won that round."

In retaliation the Scout rolled his eyes. "Yeah sure ya' did. How would you even know the fuckin' sun is blazin' out here. Your probably going crazy or hallucinating or somethin'."

FemScout shook her head. "Nah... I'm pretty sure I won."

"Wanna bet?"

"You're. ON!"

In a hurry they both ran to look for the ball. I followed behind, but walked instead. When I caught up with them I saw them arguing again, not surprisingly. I went to open my mouth to interject but closed it. This was not worth my breath. Besides if the rest of the mercs seemed use to this I'm pretty sure that they would somehow come to a compromise.

"See! I won!"

 _Oh boy._

"What?! No you didn't! See that rock ova' there, it was definitely beside it and by the looks of it, uh, yours ain't."

"Scout you lost, get over it." The FemScout took a step closer to the man getting her face in his space, antagonizing him with a tease.

Crossing his arms, he refused to believe it. "Ya', no you didn't. YOU can get ova' it. " With the space that was left between then Scout used his 'dominance' to fill it up.

 _Okay.. so maybe I was wrong._

They both growled at each other, as if they both sequenced their next action perfectly, quickly turning their head toward me. Stepping forward Scout walked a step toward me and pointed behind him toward his female counterpart.

"Tell this chuckle-nut that I won!"

"Clearly I won." FemScout pointed at herself in confidence.

I looked at the two with a blank expression. I was slowly regretting coming with them, I knew they fought a lot but this was just ridiculous. I sighed and just stared at the two trying to remember what they were fighting about again. Lucky for me Scout had gone impatient and rolled his eyes looking back at his twin.

"Just save your breath sweet cheeks and say I win."

My eyes widened at the female. I knew that she could carry a temper, and seeing how she didn't like to be seen vulnerable I was truly shocked with the outcome. With a lazy shrug she complied. "Fine. You win."

"Yeah that's right I!... Wait what.." Scout was caught in a bag of confusion. He wasn't the only one.

"You win." She said calmly.

"Wha.. Ooooh I see what yer doin'. Tryin' to give me the 'i'm the mature one so I will let you win' kind of talk." He moved his hands to quote himself on the last part. "I can play that game. SO HA! I let you win this whole time! How does it feel to be the winner, huh?" Scout closed his eyes in triumph thinking he won the argument. I would have face-palmed right there but I controlled myself. A smirked crept across the Females face, she was devious. On the brink of Scouts so-called victory another familiar growl came from one of us. The male immediately looked down to his own stomach.

"Damn I'm hungry."

"Then do yourself a favor and get somethin' to eat." replied the female.

"Naw dip. Any of you guys hungry?" Scout later said.

"Nah I'm good I alright ate a while ago."

I shook my head having the same outcome.

"Well I know you girls wanna see some more action but I'm gonna go grab some food. See ya'." He waved off and left. If my senses weren't hallucinating I though I saw Scout take his shirt off wiping his sweat on his dirt stained shirt. _Wish I could do that..._ It was getting even worse out now that it was getting later during the mid-day.

"Jesus fuck it's hot out." Complained the female.

I gave a lighthearted laugh approving her words. She looked at me smiling hopefully noticing that I was agreeing with her. "Let's get out of here before we die of heat stroke, and trust me that would be embarrassing on the respawn data sheet."

She began walking and I walked with her. We both walked the whole way over back to the air conditioned base in silence. I didn't know whether to find it shocking or just a temporary resort to cooling down faster. By the time we made it back to the RED base we entered the front entrance doors feeling the rush of cool air hit our bodies. A layer of goosebumps spread on my arms and up my legs. Being in the heat for a while and then suddenly being presented into a cool environment sent a chill up my spine. Making our way over to the kitchen/lounge room, I already had noticed the Scout sprawled out on the couch finishing up the bag of chips he'd gotten. His eyes were focused on the TV that motioned an action film. I lost interest and went over to the refrigerator to grab a bottle of water.

"Hey! Mind tossin' me one of those?"

"ey, same here Newbie."

Both of the Scouts looked at me, as I saw the FemScout shuffle onto the couch leaning on the opposite side, both of their legs spread across the couch. I bent down to grab two water bottles in the back of the fridge and stood back up to toss it to them underhand. They both caught their own saying 'Thank you' in perfect unison.

I eventually took another water bottle in the very back of the fridge to drink.

"OOO OOO gimmie gimmie!"

I looked at the two seeing the female reach over for the chips. Scout held them back further with one hand and teased the FemScout wagging his finger near her. "Nah ah ah, gotta' give me a smooch if ya' want some."

She looked at the Scout in impatience but soon complied with his request. All while she kissed her partner her hand went after the chip bag, she released stealing the bag. "HEY! You betta' share those."

They compromised later, huddling a little closer to share the chips along with their feelings for each other. There eyes became hypnotized with the current program, it looked like a race car action movie. I walked past the two to exit the kitchen for further exploration of the base. While walking I twisted the cap off the water bottle to only tip the bottle's tip onto my lips. I let the water rush out of it's holding container and down the slide of my throat. The water left an impression of a cold chill to trail down inside my body. It's movements making it down my intestines, man did it feel good. I walked down the hall curious to what was going on down in the basement level. I walked my way down the stairs meeting myself with another hallway. I turned my head slowly from side-to-side continuing on my path. I soon reached the section where the training room was and looked through the window. It seemed to be empty, _perhaps I'd train later on._ I backed away from the area and walked further down the hallway meeting myself to the end of the hallway, though there was an extension to the area. There were plastic chairs with two metal legs to support each side. Not too far ahead another room appeared, above the doors a red light glowed reading _Infirmary_. I had assumed this is where Medic always worked to help fix up the team. With the two doors that exhibited as the entrance doors, had two windows to look through. I got up closer to the right window and peaked my eyes over, seeing the view of the infirmary. I remembered it's smell, surroundings, and feeling. I remember it being cold, even slightly depressing. It seemed to be lonely in there, with nothing but white walls to stare at and-wait was that a bird? I squinted my eyes a little closer toward the white bird that seemed to be interested in the small container of blood?

"Archimedes?! Get out of zhere! Ugh, you have to schtop swimming in my patients blood." I watched the Medic appear into view talking to his little bird, apparently called Archimedes. How cute, yet creepy.

"Docktor is everything good?" questioned a Russian man lying on the medical bed, his chest cavity opened for the world to see.

"Ja! Everyzhing is quite vell." I watched the doctor return to his companion, Heavy. He picked up a clean scalpel and continue whatever he was doing to the Russian man. I fell back on the heels of my feet and walked away not wanting to disturb there... bonding? I continued my way through the halls coming across the training room once again. This time I thought I'd go inside and check out the area to get a better gist of what was in it. Upon entering I noticed the usual gym environment the place was giving off. A few treadmills, weights, yoga mats, machines used to help strengthen your thighs and legs, the normal. But there was something different; something you wouldn't usual see at a gym. In the far left corner of the area was a section where you could practice shooting. There were dummies with targets on them, hay stacks with red circles spray painted onto them-each circle a few inches around the other. I assumed that was where the mercenaries like Sniper, Spy and the Scout would mostly train. I took one more glance around the place before exiting the room to go carry on some other business.

I made my way over to my room, I thought I'd hit the showers and clean all the remaining dirt, oil, and sweat from off of me. I opened the door and headed inside, immediately going over to the dresser. I slid the drawer open noticing the dust that seemed to have collected itself over a period of time. Small thin strands of cobwebs collected in the interior edges of the drawer, the same applied with the other two drawers below. I frowned and walked toward the closet. _How did they expect me to keep my uniform clean if I only had one to wear 365 days out of the year._ I knew there had to be some source of clothes somewhere, and right I was. I opened the closet door seeing the fresh clean identical pairs of uniforms lined up neatly on their hangers. I unhooked one of the uniforms from it's support and walked toward the showers. _I sure hoped they had towels as well. Otherwise, I guess I'm going to be using this cloaking watch thing more than usual._ I made sure my door was closed before continuing on my way to get washed. With my uniform gently draped over my arm I walked toward the bathroom where all the showers were.

 _Alright Alright before you start freaking out "Oh my god the girls and boys have to share the SHOWER?!" Not exactly, no. There are two sections meant for girls only and boys only. Don't worry, but I'm pretty sure there were some rule breakers. Anyways, there are two sections when it comes to hygiene. The bathrooms are connected to the showers, a two-in-one kind of deal. The Girls' bathrooms are across from the Guys' but they are, obviously, privatized by walls. So from where I was standing to my right were the Ladies and the left were the Gentlemen._

I looked around the place making my way over to one of the showers.

 _Another thing I would like to mention about the bathrooms are that THEY. ARE. HUGE! Well in length I suppose. When you first go into the restroom there will be a row of 9 sinks, each complimenting for each female merc. That was only on one side of the room, on the other sides were the toilets and showers. The only exception to the amount of toilets were that there were only 5 they could fit and 5 showers as well. If some of the women were bold enough they would probably have to share a stall, for the showers that is... Though, I don't know what to say for the men side of the story. There was some privacy to the matter, thankfully, but for the showers the only thing divided to keeping things on the down low where the divided walls between each shower stall. It went a little something like this; tile wall, shower head, another tile wall. That's about it. No curtain. No Door. No peeping toms, hopefully._

I made my way over to the farthest one and planted my shoes beside the last shower stall. My feet felt the cold tiles press against the bottoms of my toes and heel. I twisted the shower knob over toward the middle where the temperatures were indicated by a 'H' and 'C'. Turning the dial just a little bit more toward the 'H' to give the water a more therapeutic heat to it. I felt giddy every time I got to take a shower, it was a sense of relief and relaxation. It was a moment where I could just be myself, be with my thoughts and reflect off the days events.

I turned around to look around hoping that one of the cabinets had a stock of towels in them. I went to the one closest to the showers. _Come on. It would only make sense to put towels by the shower, so this cabinet had to have a stock of them._ As my suspicions led on they were correct. A stock of RED labeled towels were neatly folded into the cabinet drawers. I fetched one from the pile and headed back over to the showers. I hung the towel by my clothes on one of the hooks that appeared by each of the stalls by the showers. I took my hand running it over to the water testing the temperature. _Perfect_. I gave out a small smile and started to take off my clothes completely. I started from the bottom and proceeded to the top. First, pants; Second, underwear; Third, shirt, top and under armour; Lastly, my gloves and mask. I stepped in the shower drenching myself in the water that poured from the shower head. I tilted my head up letting the water hit my face and run through my hair.

The warm water felt like it was penetrating through my skin relaxing the muscles that hid underneath. I gave out a long exhale feeling content once again. I carried on with my routine showering. Conveniently all the showers had their stock of shampoo and conditioner. It was quiet being all alone in the showers, only hearing the immense amounts of water hitting the ground. The slick tiled floor becoming foamy as I rinsed the shampoo and conditioner out of my hair. I was almost dont finishing up when I heard another squeaking sound come from two showers down. I instantly stopped and peaked my head out of the stall and looked across the restroom. I saw a pair of feet sticking out the bottom of the shower, they were kind of small, lengthy but not as wide; slender. The person started humming while they were, I assume from the soapy foam forming on top of the tiled ground, washing their hair. The voice suddenly stopped for a few seconds and then started talking.

"So did you die drowning in the showers, or have you neva' heard anotha' person takin' a shower before?"

I jumped at the voice and continued what I was doing. I turned the shower head off and took my towel starting to dry myself off, still in the stall. I started with my legs and moved up from there. I wrapped the warm towel around my body and began to move out of the shower when a figure stood right in front of me. I gasped at the sight and turned around to hide my face, both from embarrassment and identity.

"Whoops, didn't mean to scare ya'. H-Hey you know you can turn around it's not like I've neva' seen you without your mask Jeez."

I turned around trying to avoid looking below her eyes, fore she was naked. I honestly didn't feel comfortable showing off my body, let alone have a sight of another. It had been a while since I had a great conversation, had the confidence to speak my mind, now I had to get use to looking at other girls privates. Yeah, no.

"I just wanna say that today was pretty fun and thanks for playin' ball with me and Scout. It was pretty fun, if you wanna, maybe you could play with us another time yeah? Oh and don't worry about Scout I know he can be a bit of an asshole, but if you work past that he's a pretty cool dude."

I relaxed my shoulders a bit having full contact with her eyes and gave a friendly nod. I saw her smile back and waver off. I watched her leave holding the towel closer to my body but she stopped in her tracks and turned at her heals. "Ohhhh and one more thing, I don't know if you noticed but most of the girls are out, they have their girls night out tradition kind of thing. I usually don't go because-you betta' not tell anyone-I hate drinking that alcohol shit. Plus sometimes they go shopping and I don't go that way, that's why I spend most of my time with the guys. But during the late evenings near dinner we group up and have a fire pit. We talk, laugh, eat, some of them get drunk, and usual Demo starts a fight with Soldier... haha... It's always fun to watch."

I listened to the FemScout but near ending her sentence she seemed to forget what she was trying to talk about.

"..But uh, anyways, what I'm trying to say is if you wanted to you know, join us ya' could." The female Scout shrugged.

I could tell she was tense at the offer so to ease her anxiety I complied. I gave out a small friendly laugh giving her a thumbs up at the suggestion. She happily smiled and continued on her way over to the stall cleaning herself up. I gave a quiet meditated breathe and took off the towel from the hook to dry off my hair. I wrapped the towel around my hair and started to put on my clean uniform. The cloth felt more comfortable, it didn't stick to the sweat that use to excrete from my pores. I placed on my gloves feeling a little bit of the cloth resist from the water that was still there. Last was the final product to complete the whole spy look, the mask. I walked over to the mirror looking at my own reflection, I undid the towel that sat on top of my head to brush my hair. Each of the bristles from the brush slowly untangled the pieces of hair that knotted. My hands tangled it's fingers through my hair tying even tighter knots to form a nice french braid. Out of my face and back, the way I like it. I put on the mask having a better result than the morning routines. My hair was drier so little fly-aways would stick out from underneath the material bothering me throughout the day, but when wet the results proved more significant.

I walked back to my dorm pristine and happy. I threw the towel in the hamper for dirty clothes and plopped on my bed looking up at the ceiling. I lifted my hand so that it hovered over my face, I took off the watch that fitted perfectly with the suit and took a better glance at it. I rotated it, flipped it around and observed it's advanced technology. I never have seen a watch so particular and advanced in Philadelphia, living on the streets 'stealing' for money. Trust me all the watches I've... found lying around, nothing compared to this. I found it amazing. It's ability to have a being turn invisible with a click of a button, it was truly extraordinary. I placed the piece of technology right beside me and handled the balisong out of my pocket. I sat up on the bed and flipped it open but my finger didn't move fast enough and the blade had pricked me. I dropped the knife holding my hand. _A-ah! ouch ouch ouch ouch ouch!_ I held the side of my finger up to my mouth letting my tongue and saliva coat the small cut. I kept it there until it seemed to slow down the bleeding. My head tilted down staring at the weapon and bent down to pick it up but my foot shifted kicking it under the bed.

 _UGH!_ I groaned.

I fully got up from the bed and bent down to where my whole chest was planted to the ground. I looked around under the dark bed in search for my weapon. I spotted it and smiled. _There you are you little... huh?_ I paused for a moment noticing a object resting in the far corner of the bed. I went to reach for it sliding my body closer under the bed, but my curiosity was interrupted by a sound of two knocks on my door. I stopped looking toward the direction of the sound and grabbed what I originally came for and shifted out from under my bed. I dusted my self off and opened the door putting the knife in my pocket. I looked at the gentlemen standing in front of me and smiled at him.

"Hey! I know it's not exactly dinner time but me and the fellas usually have ourselves a nice fire pit to just hang around and eat for dinner when the girls are gone, well most of them that is. I just wondeirn' if you wanted to come and help us out." The nice country man insisted that I'd come and help out with the crew. Of course, I didn't pass up the opportunity and nodded with a smile on my face. It seemed to be contagious as the Engineer himself smiled back and put a hand on my shoulder. "Glad you could be of serve. I reckon you'll enjoy yourself tonight."

I watched him leave and turned around to grab my watch and went to leave the room, but I paused to look at my bed. _What was under there? It looked sort of rectangular, like a book. What was a book doing under my bed? Had the last member who sat the same title left it by accident?_

"Hey you alright?" The Engineer said looking back at me. I looked toward him and shut the door behind me joining him on his walk outside. I looked at my watch reading the time.

 _3:52 p.m_

Alright, just a few hours of helping set up, eating with the team, help cleaning up, and then I will be able to go back to my room and see what exactly was under my bed. Sounds good.

* * *

 _ **To be continued. . .**_

 **Why hello there, long time no see mi amigos. Thanks for hanging in there, my excuse is blamed on school. Spring break is soon, as well as finals and standardized tests. Fun Fun. Just a special thanks to all you readers out there, reviewers, followers, etc. You guys have been amazingly supportive, that's something that I will forever treasure. Most of these following chapters are going to be as fluffy as a pillow, then when Kayla gets into the gist of things some secrets will be found, some teammates; some enemies will be... eh not gonna spoil it. Sorry. Alright well I will see you guys in a month... or maybe sooner.**


	12. Chapter 12: Familiar Sensation

**Previous:**

I fully got up from the bed and bent down to where my whole chest was planted to the ground. I looked around under the dark bed in search for my weapon. I spotted it and smiled. _There you are you little... huh?_ I paused for a moment noticing a object resting in the far corner of the bed. I went to reach for it sliding my body closer under the bed, but my curiosity was interrupted by a sound of two knocks on my door. I stopped looking toward the direction of the sound and grabbed what I originally came for and shifted out from under my bed. I dusted my self off and opened the door putting the knife in my pocket. I looked at the gentlemen standing in front of me and smiled at him.

"Hey! I know it's not exactly dinner time but me and the fellas usually have ourselves a nice fire pit to just hang around and eat for dinner when the girls are gone, well most of them that is. I just wondeirn' if you wanted to come and help us out." The nice country man insisted that I'd come and help out with the crew. Of course, I didn't pass up the opportunity and nodded with a smile on my face. It seemed to be contagious as the Engineer himself smiled back and put a hand on my shoulder. "Glad you could be of serve. I reckon you'll enjoy yourself tonight."

I watched him leave and turned around to grab my watch and went to leave the room, but I paused to look at my bed. _What was under there? It looked sort of rectangular, like a book. What was a book doing under my bed? Had the last member who sat the same title left it by accident?_

"Hey you alright?" The Engineer said looking back at me. I looked toward him and shut the door behind me joining him on his walk outside. I looked at my watch reading the time.

 _3:52 p.m_

Alright, just a few hours of helping set up, eating with the team, help cleaning up, and then I will be able to go back to my room and see what exactly was under my bed. Sounds good.

* * *

 **Continuation:**

 **~{:Chapter 12-Familiar Sensation:}~**

 _Fires are what I feared since the incident. Their torturous red and orange glow, it always haunted me. They gave me the wrong intentions, destruction, darkness, depression. I could never get use to them, I would always have these flashbacks of what happened. I tried, I really did. I needed to shove them aside and move on, but something just didn't seem to cooperate with me. It just would not work, no matter what. No amount of therapy can disintegrate this memory, nothing can prevent it from turning it into ashes. That's something I would have to live with for the rest of my life, but everyone has a bad memory. You may not see it now, or perhaps you have already. Either way it will come to you one day, it's going to hit you, hard. Maybe you won't even see it coming, I didn't. The point being, everyone will have a memory that will hang over their shoulders like a demon. Now don't get me wrong, there will be plenty of great memories to go around, but there is always that one. The little irritation that sticks with you, like a shadow. Yeah a shadow. At some point you may not see it, but when the time comes, it will be waiting for you. There will be no trick to get rid of it, but there is a way to put it aside. Getting back to my phobia of fire, I honestly didn't think it was possible to leave this burden that always plagued my mind. I didn't think I would be able to feel **THIS** free. If it weren't for the stories, the discussions at the fire pit, the strange warm feeling I got by the fire, things would have turned out differently._

It was me, Engineer, Sniper and Pyro who were instructed to get the chairs, firewood, and fuel-that wouldn't be to hard because, well, Pyro duh. Medic and Heavy were given the instructions to grab any blankets and a health kit just in case, the two Scouts would bring the food, lastly the Demoman and Soldier would bring the drinks. I followed behind the Sniper and Engineer back toward the shed, or garage whatever suits your fancy. I felt a gaze toward me and looked at the Pyro, there seemed to be a skip in his step which made his joy contagious. He waved a cute little 'hello' tilting his head so innocently. I smiled and waved back, a cheery mumble coming from the maniacs muzzled gas-mask.

"Here we are." The Engineer said feeling accomplished. We made our way over to the shed, Engie opened up the doors and we all got inside. "You two get the chairs and me and Pyro will get the firewood."

I nodded at Engineer already grabbing, what just looked like, beach chairs under each arm. The two left to go grab the firewood as me and Sniper were left to carry back the chairs.

"You good sheila?"

I gave out a mumbled 'Mhm' and turned to head back to the located fire pit-it was just behind the base. I walked out of the shed with a total of two chairs, I heard footsteps behind and glanced back at the Sniper who was holding two under each arm. It made the trip easier and more effective to say the least. We dropped off the chairs and headed back. The trip back seemed to drag on a little longer, and so the Sniper thought of bring up a conversation.

"Thanks for helping out, makes the job easier." He gave a lighthearted laugh and stuffed his hands in his pockets.

"Yeah it's no biggy." I kept my head forward keeping my eyes on the shed that was seen in the distance. Although, I could have sworn I saw a smile creep onto the Aussies face through my peripheral vision.

"How did it go with the two mongrels? They didn't droive ya' too crazy did they?" The Australian looked my way, but I kept mine the same.

"They are... interesting... Not too bad once you get to know them."

I could see the Sniper nod and sigh. "Don't know what it is, but it seems loike you got a charm to ya'."

I heart thumped out of my chest, _what did he say?_ I kept my gaze still and straightforward, we were coming up toward the shed again and went inside. I think Sniper could notice the how tense the air became because he quickly intervened.

"The Team... They uh seem to have a loikin' to you. Oi noticed it, Pyro is usually shy around new recruits like you, but Engineer told me he saw you drawing with the bloke. Trust me, that doesn't just happen mate. Not to mention the way FemScout approached you, she doesn't really hang out with the shelia's. Girls in generally I guess, mostly the guys but she was different around you. You're definitely different from the last female spoi that's for sure."

I listened to him feeling good about myself. The team really was getting use to me weren't they. I grabbed the two chairs placing one under each arm, Sniper grabbed the last two chairs continuing with his words. It wasn't until the last part when he said 'different from the last female spy' it caught my attention. I walked a little slower so Sniper could catch up and so that I could carry on the conversation for a bit longer. When I looked toward him his hands were tense, his knuckles showed some white. This indication provoked something inside of me, curiosity. I got the intentions that he accidentally summed up something he wasn't suppose too.

"Hm? What do you mean?"

"...Well...Before you there was another Female Spoi loike you. Got around well with the team, no one really complained about her. She had a great connection with our Spoi, but one day she went crazy. Don't know whoi, she seemed sane when she got here but then after a few months she just started... Well let's just say she wasn't herself anymore. There have been some rumors of how." He sighed thinking if he should bother continuing. "Some say that she went crazy from all the death that surrounded her, or she went crazy from losing herself. Oi guess she wasn't prepared for being a Spy, people thought that maybe she went off the deep end because she became too paranoid and forgot her own identity. Others say she was possessed by a demon that led her to her craziness. But you know they're just rumors, no one really knows whot happened and might not ever find out. After the incident with the feminine spook no one really went near her room. Miss Pauling came around and cleaned out the sheets and put in new clothes, that's about it after that. The room's been sittin' there for a few years now, collecting nothing but dust." Sniper began to scratch the back of his neck, I guessed it was a nervous tick of some kind.

I nodded intrigued by the new information. _Perhaps that was what the book was about, or maybe a journal? Definitely something interesting._

We came upon the camp site and set up the chairs around where the campfire was going to be. It wasn't long before Pyro and Engineer came along with firewood carried in their arms. The two dropped the piles of wood in the middle of the site having the chairs surround the outside. I looked around counting ten chairs, _perfect_.

"Looks loike it's coming together pretty nice." Sniper shifted his weight to his side while he crossed his arms.

"I'd agree with that partner." nodded the Engineer.

"MHPHM!"

I gave a little laugh.

"Hey Pyro lets go check on the others to see if they need any help." The Texan looked at his friend and then back at us. "We'll be back in a few."

I watched Engineer and Pyro go off to see how the others were doing, leaving me and Sniper to be left behind. I saw him walk off to sit down in one of the plastic beach chairs. He tried his best to recline back to relax. I followed behind sitting next to him and looking more toward the sky trying to think for a bit. Despite the sun being lower toward the horizon it was still hot as hell outside. I exhaled deeply feeling pretty good-ever just take a deep breath and feel all the tension just dissipate-my stress was gone. I closed my eyes just paying attention to all my instincts my smell; my hearing; my touch; my taste. The air smelled like the first day of spring, everything is new and fresh. I could hear the wind hit against my eardrum, the sounds of birds call above the skies, and the breathing of another human being nearby. The drop of sweat running down my mask, filled with a salty like taste. I could feel the cool ground trying to penetrate the bottom of my pants that surrounded my ankles, the breeze brushing it's delicate fingertips across my face and into my hair. It all felt so...peaceful.

I re-opened my eyes and looked at Sniper. "So...What do you usually do during these campfires." He looked a little shocked with me for starting the conversation. I wasn't really known for starting them, and to be honest I was shocked myself. The moment seemed to call for it, no one else was around anyway.

"Well..." Sniper said scratching the scruff under his chin. "We usually tell stories, drink, eat, have fun. And when oi mean by have 'fun' oi mean watch Soldier and Demo fight. They sure give some good entertainment, bunch of drunks oi say. But oi shouldn't be the one to talk, oi've been through some tough hangovers."

I nodded acknowledging him. "I see. Well it does sound entertaining I'll give you that." I started picking at skin of my fingers unconsciously, again.

I didn't notice Sniper moving his eyes toward the motion of my fingers. "Uh sheila... You alroight?"

"Huh?" I stopped picking and looked back at the sharpshooter.

He gestured his hand toward mine. "You were doin' something with your fingers there."

"Oh? I was?... sorry it's a habit..."

"You don't have to apologies about it. Oi use to know someone with that problem. They usually did it when they were nervous or anxious about somethin'. Bloody bloke would always make himself bleed because of it, he told me sometimes he wouldn't know. By the looks of it oi'd say you got that trait."

"Yeah, you could say that." I shoved my hands under my thighs.

"Yeah? Well whot are you nervous about then?" The Aussie asked, seeming curious.

I shrugged. "I'm just..." I took a moment, tried figuring out what to say without seeming so scared all the time. I couldn't just say _nothing_ and move on, he already knows somethings up. Even right now, as I pause to think of what to say, his mind is already waiting for a correct answer. I sighed. "I'm just anxious, in a good way. I haven't really talked or interacted with a human being for a while, properly at least. I lived out on the streets trying to survive, hiding away from the cops, defending myself when the time called for, tried to get food and water, and looked for a place to stay warm on cold nights." I didn't want to give eye contact to the Australian, I didn't feel embarrassed, I felt regretful. A part of me wishing that I didn't tell him, but it felt good to talk to someone. Besides, Sniper didn't seem like the kind of merc to just gossip about things like this. They're personal.

"Hm... You know, believe it or not oi was just like you in the beginning."

"NO!" I said as sarcastic as I could.

He gave a smirk and continued. "Yeah betta' believe it, mate. Oi was quiet for the first few weeks, maybe a few months, okay fine a year. Didn't talk to any of them except Engie, soon it just slowly graduated to one more merc at a time." Snipers eyes grew with passion. He seemed interested in the topic, perhaps it was the love of telling stories, or possibly to make newbies like me comfortable.

"Yeah, I've already talked to Pyro, Spy, and you."

"Talked to the Spoi eh? Oi think he was the last merc oi talked too. He seemed too preppy for me, oi don't know." Sniper shrugged and looked at the dusty ground. "Hehe... It's weird to think about. We actually ended up becoming good friends anyways."

I nodded and smiled. A few minutes after Sniper finished I heard the sound of a group of voices coming closer. I sat up in the cheap beach chair and looked to where the voices were coming from. Just from the distinctive accents I could tell who each of them were. One of them held a strong Irish accent, the second one had a warming country accent, and the last was LOUD.

"ALRIGHT MEN TONIGHT IS GOING TO BE A CELEBRATION OF AMERICA!"

"Aye Soldier, you keep thinkin' that." The Demo agreed trying to keep his friends spirits up.

"It's going to be an interesting night fellas."

"YES!"

"AYE!"

They approached the little camp area, all holding a case of beer or some other beverage. Me and Sniper sat looking at our fellow teammates in content. Demo sat down in the chair across from Sniper, Soldier sat beside his drunk friend, and Engineer sat in the middle of Sniper and Soldier leaving a gap for his own buddy. Demoman stretched out his legs and sighed sitting back in the chair before grabbing himself his own alcoholic beverage.

"Ahhhhh..." Demo exhaled relaxing. "So... where are the two weasels? My stomach is callin' fer food."

"Not sure what the two are up to this time." The Engineer shook his head.

"Probably arguing about what food to bring, the mongrels do this every time."

"Yeah, maybe I should-"

As if the two were listening in the Engineer talking, they both came over with two plastic bags full of food.

"Speakin' of the devils."

"Hey guys, don't start the party without us."

"Wouldn't think of it mate."

The female looked at the Aussie "Yeah, don't know if that was sarcasm but I'm gonna pretend it isn't."

The FemScout plopped onto the chair next to me and sat the plastic bag between us. The Scout did the same but next to his companion. Everyone was almost here, all together in one place. I looked around already seeing Demo and Soldier pop open a cold one and drink as if it was there last day alive. Sniper and I were waiting patiently for the rest of the mercs to come over. In the mean time both the Scouts didn't second think the option and began digging through the bags telling us what they got.

"So I got us some chips annnnnnnddd... Oh look MORE CHIPS!"

"Wait that all you two brought?" Asked the Texan.

"Yeah pretty much." Answered the boy with the need for speed.

Sniper straightened his back and leaned forward to look at the Scout. "Are you bloody serious?! Then whot took you two so bloody long to just grab some bags of chips?"

"uh..."

The two looked at each other for a moment, giving each other facial expressions. From that I could tell the two were doing more then just 'getting' bags of chips. I could spot a little tint of a blush across the two faces.

"You know what, never mind. Whot kind of chips did you bring."

"Well I brought barbecue and just regular potato chips." The female looked at her counterpart giving him the spotlight.

"I got some regular, some kind of sour creme chips, and barbecue as well."

Scout tossed the plastic bag near the middle of the group and sat back in the chair relaxing. I looked around seeing most of the mercenaries, four more; two more. The Medic and Heavy came along. Heavy held a bunch of blankets in his hands piled one over the other, Medic held a few as well balancing a health kit on top for precautions. As I've heard, sometimes these gatherings can end up in the infirmary with some of them getting stitches. Fun.

"Heavy brought blankets for everyone." His voice was deep and thick with Russian accent in the mix, at least he tried with his English.

"Thanks bud." said the Scout as Heavy handed him a small blanket. One by one each of the (wo)men got a blanket in case if the wind decided to pick up during the night. Everyone seemed to get situated placing their blanket in a spot that was most convenient for them.

"Say... Anyone know where Pyro went?" Engie seemed a bit worried for the firebug. Everyone looked around or shrugged not knowing.

"Ah, actually, I believe he vent to go get somezhing. I couldn't understand fully vhat he vas trying to say but he just went off."

"Hm... I see. Well maybe he forgot somethin'."

"WAIT! I THINK I SEE HIM!" Soldier yelled out of nowhere partially startling me in the process. Everyone looked to where he was pointing seeing a shadowy figure walking toward us.

Engineer stood up and walked forward a bit narrowing his eyes through his goggles spotting the man Soldier was talking about. The figure then darted toward us holding up a bag and something else... Was that a... unicorn?

"There you are Pyro. What's that?" Engineer asked pointed at the brown looking sac.

"MMMHMHMHMH MPHMMHP HMPHMH!"

"Whoa whoa whoa there fella, slow down now."

The little firebug seemed to be out of breath, either from fear or excitement. It's hard to tell with him sometimes. Instead of speaking again he sat down in the spot reserved for him and gently placed his stuffed animal beside him. Like a little kid he patted the inanimate objects head. His arms then opened the sac he was wavering around a few minutes ago. Inside he brought out some pokers, graham crackers, marshmallows, and bars of chocolate.

"I'll be darned."

"HEY! We were suppose to bring the food!"

"Chill would you, I mean come on it's chocolate!" FemScout starred at the like a predator, licking her lips.

"That seems more loike it."

"So zhats vhat you've been up too."

"PYRO! IS... THAT AMERICAN CHOCOLATE?"

Pyro happily nodded to the American Soldier, with compliance he made a thumbs up.

"Good work Soldier!"

"MMHPH!"

"I'll take that as a thanks private!"

"SO! When are we eatin' my stomach is callin' fer food."

"Yes, Demo we know mate."

"Good!" He took a swig of his drink before belching out a nasty burp. I scrunched up my face in disgust, I don't mind burps but I have my limits. At least show some kind of modesty.

Seeing most of all the mercenaries here made me all anxious inside, a good anxious though. I was excited to see everyone talking, joking around and seeing their real personalities really check out. Though, there was something poking me, in a mental kind of sense. A thought was poking me in the back of the head, someone was missing. I didn't see the Spy anywhere, in fact for the whole day. I was curious to where he was, Engie did say that everyone-the men-attended these kinds of get-togethers. So why wasn't the Spy seen at all. I felt like something wasn't complete, something was missing. It didn't seem to bother the others, I guess if it didn't bother them then it wouldn't bother me. I decided to let the thought rest in my mind and enjoy the night as it was.

* * *

The night had appeared before all of us. The stars were spread out in the sky revealing it's sparking beauty, the moon planted above glowing in it's lunar hue. It was time for the fire to be lit.

"Alright lets start this party! PYRO GET THE FLAMES GROWIN' PAL!"

He hesitated in thought quickly looking at my gaze and then taking out an innocent match stick. He striked the match against the dry wood giving off a distinct sound. A tiny flame concentrated of orange and yellow grew as the Pyromaniac threw the match into the piles of wood. Slowly the flame consumed its offering burning the earthy brown wood to a deathly black ash color. I stared at the flame for a while, but I felt different. Not a feeling of fear or hesitation. It was more of a feeling of warmth and fascination, if I dare to say. An object was being passed around catching my attention, the pokers with a white fluffy marshmallow on top. Sniper passed one to me and I smiled to myself almost overwhelmed at the sight. _When was the last time I had a marshmallow... When was the last time I got to spend quality time with friends and roast marshmallows with them._ I hadn't realized how long it had been since I'd experienced these types of events. How much time in my life that i'd taken advantage of, forgetting the great times I spend with my family. _From your prospective you might be thinking "Wow all that from a marshmallow?" Yes. It's weird what types of little things can set off a thought such as this one._ If I weren't in front of eight men and a women I would have cried right then and there. They would have been tears of joy, of love and comfort. I really missed these kinds of moments in life, I swear I was on the verge of tears.

"Oi sheila, you alright?" I looked back up seeing most of the mercs looking at me confused and/or worried. I nodded straightening myself out and having the marshmallow hover over the flames. I tried ignoring the rest of the men who were still possibly looking at me, trying to figure out what was going on inside of my head. Another part of me was glad the Spy wasn't here, or else he probably would have known and figured out what I was thinking about. I didn't want self pity, I made the choice to run away and put myself into this position. No regrets at all.

"Any one got a story? Or have something they would like to just talk about?" Engie was the first to speak.

"I do." The doctor announced. "I may have a new idea of how to get zhe uber-charge to be a few seconds longer. I think I may have figured out zhe formula and how to manipulate it, but zhats it's just a theory so far. I'm still vorking on it."

"That's great to hear doc, can't wait to see how that works out. Could really be an advantage to our side if you do figure it out."

"Indeed mein freund, yes indeed." A devious smirk crept upon the doctors face, it made me smile...weird.

"DOKTOR IS VERY SMART! He will figure it out and make team win da?"

"Ja, heavy. I vill try my best."

The connection I saw the two have made me want to scream with happiness, but that's too late because I was screaming internally. _AW... CUUUTEEE..._ Alright time to come back to reality. _Breath in... Breath out..._

"OH SHIT!"

"BLOW IT OUT BLOW IT OUT YOU IDIOT! HURRY BEFORE... ahhhhhh." FemScout looked at the ground seeing the burnt marshmallow splat onto the ground.

"Whoops."

The females head turned sharply looking at the Scout in annoyance and frustration. "Whoops? Are you serious, look at what you did you wasted a perfectly good marshmallow..."

He shrugged looking at the poor black and white fluff that was now on the ground. "It's gone now, what do you want to do about it." He looked at his companion and instantly regretted it. His eyes widened as her grin grew.

"No...no no no no... that's fuckin' disgusting."

You know those moments when you have a really good connection with someone, whether it be a best friend or significant other, you just look at each other and you know exactly what they're thinking. Yup. That's exactly what happened.

"Do it." She taunted.

"Naw uh, not a chance babe. Why don't you do it!"

"Pft, I'm not the one who wasted it."

"Doesn't matter it's gone now no going back."

"Just eat it you chicken." The female teased.

"You gotta be kidding me, I ain't eating the stupid marshmallow from off the ground."

"Oh come on sweet cheeks, it shouldn't taste that bad." FemScout picked up the gooey mess and held in front of Scouts face.

"Yer not afraid of a bit of dirt are you lad?" Said the Demoman, he was poking at the bear.

"SON, you will eat that marshmallow!" Soldier joined in on the peer pressure. Scout looked at the marshmallow nervously before taking the sticky mess from the FemScouts hands.

"Hahaha now eat it!" She smiled.

"I hate all of you..." Scout said before shoving the burnt dirt sprinkled marshmallow into his mouth, his eyes closed shut while chewing the piece of glob. I flinched keeping one eye closed and the other open. I felt disgusted yet intrigued to see if he would actually do it, boy did he prove he could. Sniper shook his head pulling his hat down in front of his eyes, Engie laughed with Soldier and Demo, Pyro covered his innocent eyes with his gloved hands, Medic rolled his eyes mumbling something under his breath, and Heavy just watched confused to why he ate it. Scout swallowed the mass and opened his mouth sticking his tongue out.

"THERE SEE I ATE IT! ACK! Neva' doin' that again."

"Good job babe."

"Yeah yeah shut up..."

The female chuckled and sat back down wrapping her arms around him, giving a small peck on the cheek. She laid her head on his shoulder wrapping them both into the blankets. The atmosphere calmed down letting the nights light glow in peace. The hue of orange and yellow danced around with our shadows. The sound of fire popping and cracking filled our ears with tunes. We chomped on our snacks leaving evidence around our mouths. With full belly's we sat back in our chairs, some of us grabbing drinks and settling in. I took a bottle of water, I never got into alcohol. I never found the smell appealing so I steered clear away from the temptations to try it, besides water's better for you anyway. I wrapped my blanket over my body covering my shoulders. I took a deep breathe inhaling the smell of burning wood, it took me back too when I was younger; back to when I would take walks outside during cold nights and fill my nostrils with the scent of burning wood.

"You know, when I was younger on nights like this I would sneak out of the house and run out into the field just to lay down and stare at the stars. When the weather was just right you could practically see the whole galaxy. Not a cloud in the sky, just you, the songs of the insects, and the stars. Man do I miss it."

"Sounds noice..."

"Sure was." said Engineer sighing.

"Oi remember getting up in the mornin's to feed the horses we had. When I was around 10 or 12 me dad showed me how to feed 'em, soon he had me waking up early in the mornin's just to feed them on me own. Became a routine, before oi knew it oi was walking up at 5 every morning, sometimes hours earlier just to watch the sun rise. Oi can still remember the feelin' of the cool-warm wind blowing on my face."

"Really? Well try feelin' the wind up in Boston during the fall and winter. You'll be wishin' you were back inside, that is if you're a tourist or somethin'. You get use to it after a while once you've lived there. Haha... You know what I remember eatin' my ma's soups! MAN! Now that's somethin' to look forward too. During cold winters she would always make what she called "special soups" for me and my brotha's for dinna'. That stuff always would stick to your mind. That...That was somethin' to look forward too."

Everyone kept quiet once the story telling began. We all listened to whoever had to speak, some of us laughed other were almost in tears missing their own family members. But being grown men who were at a constant check with their ego second thought on crying.

"Heavy remembers coming to America for first time. I left family to get money to help raise family. I send money to them each month for them to survive. Heavy misses sisters and mother, we protect each other through tough times. But now Heavy has another family to protect at the same time."

He looked around the small fire pit circle and smiled, holding his supporter close. Even though his English wasn't exactly spot-on it did have me in his grasp. They were thoughtful and loving, the words 'another family to protect' gave me the weak knees-that is if I were standing. It sent my heart beating even faster, with excitement and determination. He was right we are all family, we protect each other with our abilities and skills. We all have our own unique gifts.

"I REMEMBER HAVING A ROOMMATE. HE WAS A **WEEIIIRRDDD** ROOMMATE, ALSO HAD NO RESPECT. THE PANSY WOULDN'T PAY RENT, HE ACCUSED **MEEE** OF NOT PAYING THE RENT. JOKES ON HIM, I LEFT. NOW HE HAS TO PAY ALL THE RENT, WHILE I HAVE A BETTER ROOMMATE INSTEAD. **At least he doesn't yell at me every month.** "

"Wait, you have a roommate?" asked the Sniper quite confused with the rest of us. From what I understand I thought each mercenary was presented with their own room.

"OH COURSE! HIS NAME IS LIEUTENANT BITES AND HE KNOWS HOW TO SURVIVE LIKE A SOLDIER! UNLIKE YOU MAGGOTS!"

"WHOA WHOA WHOA! Who da fuck is Lieutenant Bites Soldier?"

"My roommate of course, haven't you been listening Private?!"

"No... Sold-uh-who or what is your roommate."

"MY PET...RACCOON...HE'S MINE!"

"YOU HAVE A PET RACCOON INSIDE THE BASE THIS WHOLE TIME!"

"UM...YES!"

"So that's what's been biting my legs during the night?! Thought it was some joke experiment Medic was doin'!"

"I can assure you I'm not doing any experiments... at zhe moment zhat is. And Scout I vould advise zhat you see me in my infirmary after zhis."

"What? Why..."

"Raccoon's can carry a deadly virus called Rabies."

"R-RABIES?!"

I felt the FemScout scoot closer toward me and away from Scout. He looked at her offended. "HEY, look I don't got any rabies alright... Right?"

"Right... Ve vill see. But Soldier how did you manage to get a Raccoon into zhe base."

"I DON'T KNOW!"

"Of course... I vill be meaning to see all of you sometime tomorrow to test you to see if you have rabies as well." replied the Medic.

"Roight, well oi sleep in me van so oi'm good right doc." The Sniper seemed confident in his words, no contact; no virus right?

"Not exactly Herr Sniper, just as a precaution I vill be seeing you as vell."

"Whot? But oi didn't even-"

"Sniper! I. Vill. Be. Seeing. You." The Medic spoke sternly, which got to the Sniper as he obeyed the orders. Medic can be soft spoken most of the times but when he wanted to get business done he was determined to have it happen.

"Fine..."

With a smile of victory the Medic was pleased with his compliance. The fire was starting to dim with the tension that was earlier brought. I stayed wrapped in my blanket watching the fire and some of my new colleagues chat. After a little I saw Engie bring out something in the corner of my eye, it was wooden, was shaped like a pear at the base and toward the top became more skinnier and straight. Strings constructed the sound of the instrument, along with the hinges that stuck out from the sides at the top of the music making device. A slow steady tune was played from the guitar calming the atmosphere some more. The mellow slow tune played some of the mercs to sleep. I watched their eyes drift into unconsciousness being placed into another world of dreams. Medic was laid gently on Heavies large muscular arm, using it was a pillow. Heavy took care of his Medic, placing both his and the Medic's blanket on him carefully. Demo must have either passed out from all the drinking or fell asleep from the lovely song, Soldier stayed by his friends side in a sitting position starring at the fire in content. Although, from the position of his helmet it was hard to tell if he had fell asleep in that stance or was in another world. The two runners were back to back with blankets around them, their eyes closed in a trance of sleep. Pyro stared at the fire, both, watching the flames of the fire and listening to the tunes his friend was playing. Sniper sat back in the chair with his bottle of beer on the ground next to the front of his chair, hands underneath his head starring up at the starry night, lanky legs stretched out with the bottom of his shoes facing the fire.

If I wouldn't have seen what these guys have done, what they are here for, then I would have thought they were regular men. I would have thought they were just a bunch of diverse men having a good time. I turned to my side in the chair huddling my legs close to my torso, tucking the blanket into the spaces that were left open for the cool night air. Before I could recognize it my eyes themselves were drifting into oblivion. The sounds were gone the sights were now black. The cold had escaped from the warmth and my heart was pacing at a slow rate.

* * *

I felt someone lightly tap my shoulder. Two taps and a few whispering words. I opened my eyes still half asleep and unaware of what was going on. I looked up at the man bent down beside me and then around the general area. It place seemed darker than I remembered, the fire was stomped out a few ashes trying to survive with the little bit of life they had left. Most of chairs were stacked back up together and most of my teammates missing.

"You awake? Oi would have left ya' in your peaceful slumber but oi figured that you'd want to sleep in a bed that wouldn't give you stiff muscles in the mornin'."

I stayed quite and just nodded. I pulled the blanket from off me instantly regretted it. A gust of wind picked up having me shiver like a leaf. "Winds pickin' up, let's getcha in before you get a cold." I stood up a little too fast and lost a little of my balance and instinctively grabbed onto the end of my chair for support. A heartbeat of adrenaline kicked in from the mini-heartattack. I stabilized myself and took a deep breath.

"Crikey you alright mate?" Sniper relaxed his shoulders from getting ready to grab me, probably to prevent me from falling flat on my face.

"Mhm" was all I managed to get out before starting to walk toward the base. I held the blanket close around my shoulders keeping in as much warmth as possible. Sniper strolled behind me in case I stumbled again or passed out from exhaustion. I made my way inside the base walking down the hallway, up the stairs, and down the hallway again toward my room. I came upon my door and rested my head on the door just standing their surprisingly really comfortable in my situation. I felt a wall of heat behind me and speak.

"Oi'm no professional in this kind of stuff, but oi'm pretty sure that isn't how you open a door."

I groaned at his comeback, but only heard a pathetic laugh instead. _What I'm tired... I don't like being messed around with when I'm half conscious._ He twisted the knob to my room and held me back to make sure I didn't fall with the door. "Now can you make it to your bed or do oi have to help you with that as well."

I turned my head toward him and looked at Sniper unamused. If I was less tired then I was I would have shoved him to the side and gone off to bed. For a man who looked like in his late 30's early 40's he sure had the mentality of a teenager. AND THAT'S COMING FROM A TEENAGER! He held up his hand in defense and backed away, I kept my eyes on his and didn't leave them until I closed the door on his face.

"Whot? No 'thank you' for opening the door?" His muffled voice coming from behind the door.

Silence.

Ignoring him I slipped into bed. It felt good to have a cushion to surround me instead of stiff plastic supporting you. My head rested on the fluffy pillow taking advantage of its softness. As soon as my body went into a full relaxation mode I slipped into a temporary coma. Just like that, I was out like a light.

* * *

 **To be continued. . .**

 **Hiya! Like I said, about a month would go by before I'd post anything. Hope everyone had a great Spring Break, also an April Fools day as well. Where you pranked? or the pranker? I hope you like this chapter, I wanted to focus on a little bit of quality time with the male mercenaries. Don't fret the females will soon be next as well as the BLU side of the mercs as well.**

 **HM... Where is that Spy, I know he's hiding somewhere. Perhaps in the next chapter he'll pop up.**

 **I just want to thank all the people who've stayed with this story so far, even with the reviews, favorites, and follows! A HUGE THANK YOU TO YOU ALL! Now I must flee and finish other work that involves schools! See you guys probably in another month!**


	13. Chapter 13: Training Time PT 1

**Previous:**

"Oi'm no professional in this kind of stuff, but oi'm pretty sure that isn't how you open a door."

I groaned at his comeback, but only heard a pathetic laugh instead. _What I'm tired... I don't like being messed around with when I'm half conscious._ He twisted the knob to my room and held me back to make sure I didn't fall with the door. "Now can you make it to your bed or do oi have to help you with that as well."

I turned my head toward him and looked at Sniper unamused. If I was less tired then I was I would have shoved him to the side and gone off to bed. For a man who looked like in his late 30's early 40's he sure had the mentality of a teenager. AND THAT'S COMING FROM A TEENAGER! He held up his hand in defense and backed away, I kept my eyes on his and didn't leave them until I closed the door on his face.

"Whot? No 'thank you' for opening the door?" His muffled voice coming from behind the door.

Silence.

Ignoring him I slipped into bed. It felt good to have a cushion to surround me instead of stiff plastic supporting you. My head rested on the fluffy pillow taking advantage of its softness. As soon as my body went into a full relaxation mode I slipped into a temporary coma. Just like that, I was out like a light.

* * *

 **Continuation:**

 **~{:Chapter 13-Training Time PT 1:}~**

I opened my eyes groggily, the world around me looked blurry, a bit of crust in the corner of my eye. I had awoken from the constant sound of my alarm going **BEEP**... **BEEP**... **BEEP**. My hand connected with the mechanism that shuts off the sound, its annoying warning died down. I turned to my side wrapping the blankets around my body and brought my knees closer to my chest. I stared facing the wall for a while. I had a feeling of dread for some reason, I didn't know if I had woke up on the wrong side of the bed, or if I was pulled away from my sleep. A feeling of just sadness consumed me, perhaps it was the fact it was Sunday. Nobody likes Sundays, or maybe you do, I don't know. I feel like I shouldn't be here, I feel like I'm a waste of time in this base. What was my purpose again? I forget. _STOP! What are you thinking, Kayla!_ My conscious is right, I need to stop thinking these types of things. I forced myself out of bed, my feet putting pressure on the floorboards. I stretched, lifting my arms up toward the ceiling and making that weird groaning sound that people do when they're stretching, but I came into contact with a sharp pain. "Ouch! Ow, ow, ow, cramp, cramp, cramp!" My body instantly bent down to the source of the pain, being my calf. Ever get those kinds of cramps when you stretch in the mornings, yeah that just happened. It doesn't feel so hot may I just add. "What a great way to start off the morning." I mumbled.

After I massaged the area for a little I got back up and walked it off. I turned my attention toward the bathroom and walked inside doing my normal morning routine. I grabbed the toothbrush and soaked it under the water before putting some of the toothpaste that accommodated it. I looked at the mirror starting to brush my teeth when I noticed a yellow sticky note on the side of the mirror. _What this?_ I kept brushing and took the note off reading it.

 _Bonjour Mademoiselle,_

 _I would highly recommend coming down to the training  
_ _room when you are done getting yourself ready.  
I request that you also get yourself something to eat,  
_ _as you are going to need your full attention and energy  
for today's lessons._

~Spy

I crumpled up the note and threw it in the trash, after reading it my face contorted into a disgusted expression. _HE WAS IN MY ROOM!_ Just the thought of Spy sneaking in either in the middle of the night or early this morning gives me the chills. Another thought struck my mind, _was he... watching me sleep? Nah, don't be crazy. He's a professional killer... oh god... that didn't come out right. I-I'm pretty sure he has respect and isn't some vampire out that twilight movie._ I spitted the foamy toothpaste into the sink turning the faucet on to rinse out the residue. I ran my toothbrush under the water giving it a few taps against the sink before placing it in the holder. I cupped by hands using it gather the water and sip from my hands. Swishing the contents of the water around my mouth I spat back out to make sure all the toothpaste was out my mouth. I gave a toothy smile checking to see if I missed any spots, _everything seems in check._ I soon changed out of my pajamas and into more appropriate attire. I don't know the exact time I went out of my room but it must have been a little early because the base seemed quiet. _Perhaps everyone is still in bed, eh oh well_. It felt kind of nice, but it still felt too lonely without all the crazy noise-as much as I hate to admit. I continued my way down the hallway, eventually making it into the training room. I glanced into the small window that showed the whole room, making a sideways smile I went in. Upon entering it was strangely quiet as well, the lights were all on, the smell of new equipment and sterile supplies. I looked around suddenly thinking of the idea that maybe Spy was playing a trick.

My eyes carefully looked around the room checking out the corners. "Spy this isn't going to work, you minus well materialize in front of me." I said in a more taunting way then what I wanted. I turned around and then back around again, nothing. "hm... Seriously there's no point being here if you are going to waste both of our time by playing hide and seek." Just then the door opened and the man himself came in. "Madame who are you talking too?" I flushed in embarrassment and looked away. "No one important... Well no one..." I replied back. He gave back a small "mhm" and continued to walk until he was in front of me. I straightened up my back as if I was in front of a Sargent in the military. He just stared at me looking into my eyes, I kept contact the whole time not wanting to seem intimidated.

"So, I don't want to waste our time. Tell me what you already know about hand-to-hand combat."

I shrugged looking to the side before meeting at his gaze again. "Enough to take down the enemy Spy I guess."

I noticed the small smirk he gave and it made me feel good inside. "That's not specific enough, do you work from your anger? Is it the stress and pressure that gets you going, or the control of your emotions that give you your abilities?" His feet started to pace back and forth in front of me.

"Well... I'm not too su-" I gasped ducking and maneuvering herself to where I could grab Spy's arm and twist it behind his back. I quickly moved my foot kicking it against the back of his knee cap causing it to give out. He grunted falling to one knee being forced to the ground. "It seems that you work fine under unpredictable situations." His voice sounded muffled from the side of his face being squished to the ground. "Now get off me," he demanded.

"Whoops, hehe. Sorry." I have to admit it felt pretty good to take down Spy. To his defense, it didn't last very long.

"Did you eat any breakfast on the way here?"

I shook my head. "...No..." I saw him roll his eyes and sigh handing me a protein bar he took out of his pocket. "Eat, we are going to be training for a while. I don't need you passing out while you are learning new attack techniques." I grabbed the bar and tore the wrapping off. I ate it chewing the mixture of oats, some other types of grains that were all covered in honey.

He watched me as I ate, making me slightly uncomfortable. When I was done I threw away the wrapper in the trashcan by the corner of the door I entered. Once I came back over he started talking again. "We will begin with stretching, having a cramp during will battle will get you killed. You are going to need to be steady on your feet at all times, unless you want to die an agonizing death." My eyes narrowed at him, there was no way he could hide that snarky smirk on that face of his. I joined in with him doing my own stretches as he did his. After 5 minutes he finished and stood up, I did the same following his lead.

"We will be taking your weapons into more depth today, each and every one of them. I will be showing you how to correctly utilize them in both chaotic and calm situations. In addition you will be learning how to control your emotions." I really, really, wanted to give back a sarcastic sentence but I thought it would probably be best not to.

"Did you bring your weapons with you?" he raised an eyebrow looking right at me.

"I was suppose to?" I said feeling like a complete idiot.

I gave another deep annoyed sigh. "Yes..."

I stood their like an idiot "Did you want me to-"

"Yes." Spy said sternly.

I turned around going ahead to get my weapons and all my gadgets. I went up to my room and across respawn getting everything before returning. I glanced at him trying to see if there was any hint of irritation but he just stood there with a blank emotionless face. "Alright I have everything now... I hope." my voice dragged out in the end.

"Good, now we can **finally** begin." I didn't like how he emphasized on the word 'finally'.

 _Jerk._

"Let us start off with your cloaking device. I assume you have an idea of how it works? Or am I wrong about that as well?" _His mockery is really getting on my nerves here._

"No I know how to work it."

"Excellent. Now I want you to put the watch on and try to get this from my hand." In the palm of his hand was that of a shiny marble. "If you can snatch this from my hand without me knowing or feeling anything fraction of movement, then we can move on to the next lesson."

 _Seems easy enough. EXCEPT FOR THE FACT I HAVE TO GRAB IT WITHOUT HIM KNOWING!_

 _"_ How do you plan on me to do that?"

"That's for you to figure out and me to judge. Prove to me that you can demonstrate the skills of deception."

"Skills of... Fine." I put on the watch pressing the button that activated the device. My very form had turned invisible, turning the same color as my surroundings. I had gently walked to the side, I was intently watching his facial expressions to see if he had any indication of where I was. From the looks of it he didn't, then again he was really good with hiding his own emotions. Which in my opinion wasn't fair, he had years of practice-certainly not me. Every step that I take is another mistake I think I make. My self confidence becomes doubtful, at every plan I try to think of. I even feel a little awkward at how quiet the room had gotten. I look for a weak spot on him but it's more difficult then I'd hope for. I didn't know what it was, his posture seemed so professional I felt so threatened considering he wasn't doing anything. I waited for a few minutes just to see if he'd show any sign of impatient's. Unfortunately for me his body didn't show any acknowledgement of boredom or tiredness. I eventually gave up myself and walked around him within a distance. My hands were a bit sweaty because of how nervous I was. I reached out preparing my hand to finish the job, I took a quiet breath and closed in. The air-conditioning in the room turned on making a somewhat loud humming noise, in the mist of the awakening of the air-vents I took my opportunity and went for the marble. I quickly swiped my hand across his thinking my plan was actually working. _Why I thought such a thing could be possible, couldn't tell you._ As if everything happened in slow motion I was in the wrong. As soon as I saw him slightly turn his head I knew I was dead. _Figuratively speaking that is, though I'm sure he could literally have it happen._

The hand holding the marble immediately closed like a one of those Venus fly trap plants. When my hand swiped past his knuckles his other arm quickly came over having his hand grab my wrist. We both froze- _ok fine technically I froze-_ his eyes gazing right at me. His glare was so threatening that I thought perhaps the cloak had vanished revealing my body again, but I was still invisible. I stared back slightly in fear. With a few movements of his fingers made its way to the watch, it made a noise deactivating the cloak. I materialized back feeling like he could really see me this time, a part of me feeling ashamed.

"Try again. You took too long, you were a bit predictable. I will give you credit on keeping your footsteps quiet, but you are going to have to be a little more inventive. Have a little more intuition in your strategies, unless you want to constantly get killed while you are in battle." His voice was stern and confident, something that I seriously was lacking.

I nodded saying nothing else. He let go of my hand and opened back his hand. "Try again." I took a few steps back and turned the device on again. This time with a little more determination I set out a game plan. I looked around this time checking to see if I could use anything to get me to a good advantage, a distraction. I gingerly walked around making sure that my steps weren't detectable. Upon walking toward the weights I purposely took one that was light enough but heavy enough to make noise. I walked near him and tossed it over to the side. It's sound echoing a tad with a _thump._ He looked back in confusion, his mouth opening as if he was going to say something. I swiftly made my way over to his opposite side and reached for the marble again. My face lit up in excitement as I was so close to reaching over to my victory. Of course, its never that easy now is it. His hand closed instantly again as he must have grown in suspicion. Spy gave this laugh that I didn't know was either evil or in a mocking kind of way. Though it didn't matter, I was frustrated.

"Ah Ah Ah, not so fast mon petite. Nice... distraction? You aren't that slick my dear." _Yup definitely in a mocking way._

Just like the last time I materialized in front of him, not so happy with myself. "What did I do wrong now?" I asked wanting to improve on my failures.

"Well for starters you are, again, predictable. If you are going to use a distraction such as that you are going to have to be much quicker. Also when you were moving around me that quickly I could feel your presence, a small gust of wind if you will." I nodded taking the constructive criticism. "Although I do have to say you are getting a little more creative, just try to expand a bit more." He looked at me and I looked back giving a smile. "Okay."

He still didn't give a glimpse of any happiness. I took a deep breath and tried again, can you guess what happened? Yeah, that's right I DID IT! Nah, I'm just playing I failed once again. Never fails does it? This time I wasn't paying close attention to my own shadow, it's own fingerprint leading my own identity to be printed on the walls and the ground. I felt a bit stupid forgetting the most simplistic things. It took another few tries some closer, others complete failures. I'd either forget to control my breathing, quiet my footsteps, look out for my own shadow, or lack in creativity. I couldn't tell if he was getting impatient but I sure as hell was.

In my, who knows how many attempts, I tried yet again. I remembered his advice and took it into account. This time I felt different when I cloaked, I felt a little more intuitive with my decision making. I had solid plan this time, I prayed in my mind hoping this time it will work. After a few seconds I began, I took quiet steps, stayed to the shadows. I was looking around more sharp than before, that's when something in my brain clicked. I made my way softly but quickly over to the light switches, I closed my eyes getting my eyes ready and flipped the switch. The whole went dark, black surrounding the room. I didn't take a moment to wait and made my way over to the weights again. I knocked a few over, quickly followed by a few other noises. I passed by him purposely touching his shoulder. I could feel him move and twitch a tad when I did so, he knew where I was now... Or so he thought. I could feel his movements, even in the dark, it felt truly exhilarating. I smiled to myself feeling him struggle at finding me already. He reached forward but ended up catching air instead, despite how dark it was I could see the confusion written on his face. I quickly reached for the opposite side of his shoulder roughly pulling him back, he stumbled a bit but regained his balance rather quick. He turned around but I had somehow expected that and ducked moving as he did. In reflex I hit his elbow hard causing the marble to fly into the air for a few seconds. I quickly grabbed it in mid-air getting on the ground dodging his grasp by rolling over. I made a small laugh, which concentrated on the location I was at. His head immediately turned to me and I went over to the lights turning them on.

His eyes squinted but then adjusted. I leaned against the wall with my arms crossed, "looking for this?" I held up the marble and looked at him tauntingly. Seeing his face he looked a bit impressed.

"Congratulations you've managed to complete the task. Now let's move on to the next shall we?" He gave a small glance at me.

"Yeah." I nodded.

"Good, I will be teaching you how to use your sapper. Your sapper is going to be important when you sneak into the enemy base, I'm sure their Engineer will be expecting me or you to pop up eventually. Always be on the look out, listen to your surroundings veerrryy carefully. Is that understood?"

Spy was really starting to sound like my dad, telling me right from wrong then using that 'do you understand' tone of voice and look. In response I nodded sternly and took a deep breath.

"I want you to be calm when you are on the battlefield, I'm sure you will encounter some of the enemy team. You will have to be agile and smart when being approached by any of them, especially if you plan on using your disguise kit. But that is for another lesson, just focus on using your brain." He tapped the top of my head to emphasize his words.

"Got it, use my brain."

He nodded "We won't be able to practice using the sapper but when we get into battle tomorrow I want you to follow closely. From there I will show you how it's done and then I want you to copy. If you mess up once you will end up-"

"Dead... I got it..."

He gave a small chuckle and continued talking. He started talking about the butterfly knife and how I was suppose to accurately use it. How important it is to play out the stab in your head before making the move, I found it rather interesting. But if I'm going to be honest at all I wasn't really paying attention. My thoughts were busy with thinking about the enemy team. Who was I even fighting, I mean if I'm going to be murdering other people I want to know what for. I understand I have to kill them in order to finish the objective, but I want to know **WHO** I'm killing you know? What am I going to be up against, what are the other teams skills? Heck I don't even know the players on their team.

"Don't forget when times get dire-"

"Hey Spy..." I interrupted.

"What?..." he sounded a little annoyed.

"Who exactly are we fighting?"

He raised an eyebrow "Mind clarifying?"

"I mean, what am I going up against, how am I suppose to outsmart the enemy if I don't know how they fight. Isn't there some pattern any of them use?"

Spy just stood there giving me a blank expression for a moment, which turned into another devious smile then a laugh.

I looked at him confused. I didn't know what was going on or what triggered him to laugh. "Is there something I'm missing?"

He placed a hand on my shoulder calming himself from the small laughter. "That is a great question, I'm glad you asked. You know most people I've trained don't ask questions. They just accept what I say, but I don't know if they truly understand. Come." He wavered his hand for me to follow.

"Wait.. So are we just going to-"

"Don't worry we are just going to take a small break. Besides, I want to answer your question." I was somewhat taken back, it was just a question. I didn't really think it would be taken as something of importance, though it does seem critical. Either way I followed behind him back up to the kitchen. He nicely pulled out a chair and signaled for me to sit. I looked around noticing that some of the mercenaries were sitting over on the couch by the living room. From the looks of it Pyro was on the floor watching the TV intently. The female Engineer was on the right side of the couch, the female Scout sitting in the middle, and the Medic sitting on the other end. Scout seemed to be the only one who looked the most tired out of all of them, her eyes occasionally drifting close.

When Spy came back over he had two mugs in his hand, I saw some steam emit from it. He placed the mug in front of me and sat down looking across at me.

"I hope you like tea."

"Mhm..." I nodded staring down at the cup.

"Now lets discuss about the other team. Team BLU isn't too far off from our team, except from what I understand there are five females and eight males. They have two Engineers, Pyros, Snipers, and Heavys-one of each gender as you can imagine. Otherwise, they have one Scout, one female Soldier, one Demoman, one Spy, and one Medic."

"Yeah I met their Medic, he seemed pretty new."

Spy nodded at the new information, "I assume he was an easy kill."

I nodded in response. I analyzed the amount of members on our team to the enemies in my head. "So... We have the advantage?"

"Well not exact-"

"OH COME ON! THE BALL WAS RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIS FACE! FOUL I CALL FOUL!" exclaimed the feminine Scout. _Someone's awake._

"Scout... Shut up..." Engineer said flatly.

Spy and I looked to the side trying to figure out what was going on. From the looks of it Scout was getting too roweled up in the current game she was watching.

"B-But you saw that right? He...He..." The Engineer was giving her a threatening glare, instantly she became quiet again. Medic sighed shaking his head slightly, "you need to calm down Scout, it's just a game."

"Just a gam-Just a game. I don't think you understand the strength and dedication athletic. . ." She kept rambling on about the significance of sports and what a difference they really make. By the look on Engineers face she wasn't too happy about Medic insulting Scouts one passion. I turned my head back to Spy giving him my full attention.

"As I was saying they aren't exactly at a disadvantage, as much as I'd hate to admit this, they do have... Intelligent people on their team. I do question their ethics, but they are very flexible in certain situations. Unfortunately, that is what makes them dangerous." His expression became stern and serious.

"Do you know anything about them?" I then asked.

He sighed and sat back in the chair. "I've got the opportunity to observe some of them after battle." I raised an eyebrow in question, he must have noticed my confusion because he replied back with "But that's another story for another time. From what I know. . ."

* * *

 _ **To be continued. . .**_

 **Alright, I believe I owe an explanation on why this chapter is about 2 months late.**

 **1.) I haven't had any motivation or inspiration on what to write or write at all**

 **2.) School has delayed my ability to type up the story (sorta)**

 **3.) Terrible...Terrible...Procrastination.**

 **I am so sorry if you've been waiting and waiting for so long. I finally decided to get off my butt (figuratively) and start typing up this chapter, I'm not too thrilled with this chapter so if the interest is lost, again I'm sorry. Hopefully the next one will intrigue you all more, if you aren't already pulled in. Though, if you have stuck with the story and are still excited for the next I want to thank you! This time I just want to give out a fore warning that the next chapter won't have a specific date, as I am going to be busy this summer.**

 **So in conclusion, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Have a fun and safe summer.**


	14. Canceling the Story?

**Previous:**

Spy and I looked to the side trying to figure out what was going on. From the looks of it Scout was getting too roweled up in the current game she was watching.

"B-But you saw that right? He...He..." The Engineer was giving her a threatening glare, instantly she became quiet again. Medic sighed shaking his head slightly, "you need to calm down Scout, it's just a game."

"Just a gam-Just a game. I don't think you understand the strength and dedication athletic. . ." She kept rambling on about the significance of sports and what a difference they really make. By the look on Engineers face she wasn't too happy about Medic insulting Scouts one passion. I turned my head back to Spy giving him my full attention.

"As I was saying they aren't exactly at a disadvantage, as much as I'd hate to admit this, they do have... Intelligent people on their team. I do question their ethics, but they are very flexible in certain situations. Unfortunately, that is what makes them dangerous." His expression became stern and serious.

"Do you know anything about them?" I then asked.

He sighed and sat back in the chair. "I've got the opportunity to observe some of them after battle." I raised an eyebrow in question, he must have noticed my confusion because he replied back with "But that's another story for another time. From what I know. . ."

* * *

 **Continuation?**

 **Hey everyone...**

 **Now I don't want to disappoint anyone, but I'm not sure if I will be continuing with this story.**

 **I'm sure you can tell that my inspiration or consistency of uploading has died down. I don't know if any of you readers out there are still following with the story line, but I have lost all interest and passion toward writing this story. So for the moment I am canceling (soon deleting) this whole story, unless you readers think otherwise.**

 **If you truly love this story and want me to continue, I'll try my best to get back on it. For now I will be concentrating on school and other projects for the future (most likely in the summer). Once again I am sorry for the inconvenience, hopefully you understand. I just want to provide intriguing and amazing content, than some loose terrible quality of a story. Agree?**


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